On October 23rd, the Fifth China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) High-level Meeting on Tourism Cooperation was held in Riga, capital city of Latvia.
In his speech at the meeting, Chinese Minister of Culture and Tourism Luo Shugang said the Chinese tourism industry has been rapidly developing in recent years, and that China’s tourism cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries has yielded significant results. He suggested that China and Central and Eastern European countries should uphold the principles of balance and universal welfare, practical innovation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes when strengthening tourism cooperation in areas like policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, trade and finance and people-to-people exchanges to promote mutual benefit and win-win results.
Participants of the meeting highly appreciated China's role in developing tourism cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries and asserted readiness to work with China to boost exchange and find innovative approaches. Moreover, it is expected to roll out more favorable measures to promote mutual visits and take the China-CEEC tourism cooperation to a new level.
Luo Shugang held talks with Theoharis, minister of Greek Tourism Ministry, Blendi Klosi, Albanian minister of Environment and Tourism, Puntulis, Latvian minister of Culture, and Tamás Menczer, Hungarian state secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade. In addition, a memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation was also signed between the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Slovak Ministry of Transport and Construction.
During the meeting, the first “Marco Polo” award was granted to some innovative tourism routes and products for Chinese market.
Besides, more than 40 Chinese tourism enterprises participated in the forums held during the meeting.