On October 30th, the 2019 International Conference of Mountain Tourism and Outdoor Sports (MTOS) kicks off in Xingyi, Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Guizhou province. More than 1200 guests were present at the conference. Sun Zhigang, secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, Shen Yiqin, governor of Guizhou province, sent congratulatory messages to the event. Zhnag Xu, vice minister of Culture and Tourism, Long Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou CPC Provincial Committee, Lu Yongzheng, deputy governor of Guizhou, and Li Jianming, deputy director of China's General Administration of Sport, attended the opening ceremony.
Zhang Xu said that China, as a mountainous country, makes full use of colorful mountain tourism resources to develop special tourism projects and formats including mountain sightseeing, leisure and holiday, outdoor sports and expedition. Currently, mountain tourism has represented one of important part of tourism industry. Therefore, on the premise of protecting mountainous areas, it is expected to adopt a new development mode of mountain tourism that will make full use of local resources, adapt to ecological features, demonstrate ethnic culture and meet the needs of tourists in sightseeing, leisure and vocation, immersive experience and expedition.
Lu Yongzheng expressed that Guizhou is renowned for its mountains which nurture its fascinating natural landscapes, pleasant climate and dazzling cultures. Guizhou attaches great importance to the development of mountain tourism based on its own mountain resources. Over the past three years, Guizhou have seen a boom in tourism with an average annual growth of 37.15% in tourist arrivals and an average annual total tourism income growth of 37.68%.
In addition, ten standards for Guizhou’s mountain tourism involving karst cave tourism, bike path quality, footpath levels, public service facility construction, holiday resort levels, sightseeing bus service, vehicle campsites, hot springs tourism, culture-themed hotels, and buffets at star grade hotels were released at the opening ceremony of the conference.
During the conference, 55 activities including a sports equipment expo, a national intangible cultural heritages show, as well as competitions in cycling, hiking, hot air balloons, camping, fishing, and rock-climbing were organized.