China (Changchun) Travelers' Forum 2023 to Explore New Opportunities for High-Quality Development of Summer Leisure Tourism

Hosted by The Changchun Municipal People's Government and co-organized by the Changchun Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism and Trip.com Group, the China Travelers' Forum 2023 wrapped up in Changchun after a three-day agenda from June 8-10. There are many highlights, for example, the Cultural Tourism Forum, Trip.com Gourmet's Haute Dining Club, Trip.com Summer Travel Trends Awards, "Meeting in Changchun" National Impact Program, and Trip.com Cultural Tourism Industry Alliance's Field Visit. By exploring characteristic destination experiences from a new perspective, Changchun aims to present an annual event that showcases its charm and affects the cultural tourism industry.

 

Fig.: China (Changchun) Travelers' Forum 2023

On that very day, local and foreign talents from the cultural tourism industry gathered together to discuss new opportunities and strategies for the high-quality development of summer leisure tourism in Changchun through cross-border dialogs and brainstorming sessions.

The leaders and guests present at the opening ceremony were Zhao Xian, Vice Mayor of Changchun Municipal People's Government, Zhu Shanzhong, Tourism Ambassador of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Ma Li, Deputy Director-General of the Industrial Development Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chen Siyu, Deputy Director-General of the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Lv Yongmei, Director of Greater China of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), and Wang Wei, Senior Vice President of Trip.com Group. Guests like Trip.com Group's CEO Sun Jie also delivered speeches online.

China (Changchun) Travelers' Forum 2023 to Accelerate Culture-Tourism Integration and Recovery

As China's first tourism festival featuring summer holiday resources, the Changchun Summer Art Festival has been held for 16 editions since its inception in 2007. Leveraging local climatic resources, the festival invigorates the cultural tourism market with various activities, including interesting performances, fashion shows, travel experience, outdoor recreation, and cultural tourism consumption. The multi-dimensional approach, focusing on products, consumption, services, marketing, and policies, has made the Changchun Summer Art Festival a brand and benchmark for summer tourism in Changchun.

The China (Changchun) Travelers' Forum 2023 marks the first collaboration between the Changchun Summer Art Festival and the China Traveler's Forum (CTF), a major IP of Trip.com Group. The fusion will further consolidate Changchun's reputation as a summer travel destination and attract more travel enthusiasts to feel the city's charm.

In his speech, Zhao Xian highlighted that Changchun, the "Spring City of Northern China" with a comfortable climate, is not only a major old industrial base famous for science and education but also a national historical and cultural city. The event presents a significant opportunity for Changchun to accelerate the integration of culture and tourism and provides strong support for the recovery and development of the city's cultural tourism industry.

UNWTO's Tourism Ambassador Zhu Shanzhong recognized the city's rich resources in summer tourism and ice-snow tourism, and believed that high-quality green tourism is emerging as a new trend in the industry in rapid recovery. The event has shone a light on Changchun's cultural tourism industry and stimulated summer leisure tourism, which is highly consistent with the city's endeavor to make its cultural tourism sector green and healthy through quality development.

Chen Siyu, Deputy Director-General of the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, addressed that in the past years, the province has followed General Secretary Xi Jinping's guidelines in the speeches and instructions made during the inspection of Jilin, taking tourism development as an important strategy for all-round revitalization. Guided by the provincial committee's high-quality development strategy, Jilin has developed ice-snow and summer leisure tourism by making full use of local winter and summer resources.

Lv Yongmei, Director of Greater China of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, emphasized that culture, technology, and sustainability are the keywords for tourism and recreation development. As a major northern hub on the "Belt and Road", Changchun has a profound cultural heritage and rich tourism resources to develop summer resorts, health and wellness tourism, and outdoor recreation.

Sun Jie, CEO of Trip.com Group, stated that Changchun is developing an all-for-one tourism pattern with highlights in four seasons as the sector starts to recover. Trip.com will also spare no effort to promote the city's two cultural tourism brands—"Summer Leisure" and "Urban Ice and Snow".

To gain professional insights into Changchun's cultural tourism industry, a ceremony was held to appoint 12 experts, scholars, and business elites from the cultural tourism sector as development consultants. In the future, they will share advice and input to fuel the high-quality development of the local cultural tourism industry.

During the keynote session, industry experts shared valuable insights.

Li Xinjian, professor of Beijing International Studies University and member of the Experts Committee for the "14th Five-Year Plan" of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the China Tourism Group Experts Committee, emphasized the need for Changchun to focus on products and business forms in the development of summer leisure economy. For example, the city can integrate urban outdoor sports and local cultural experience through the "Summer Retreat + X" to highlight its advantages as a summer holiday destination and shape consumer preferences for summer tourism in Changchun.

According to Zeng Bowei, Director and Professor of the China Tourism Economy and Policy Research Center at Beijing Union University and Secretary-General of the China Leisure Association, it is key to developing specific products and services for target markets. He believes that Changchun's summer retreat market should be further segmented and looks forward to more innovation in this respect.

Xiong Xiaojie, Chairman and Chief Strategic Advisor of Times Culture and Tourism Group, delivered a keynote speech on "The Reconstruction of Changchun's Cultural Tourism Brand and Product Power under New Cultural Tourism Trends", and Chen Meiyan, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Enjoy Culture and Tourism Group, discussed "Innovative Operation of Micro-vacation Destination".

The present businesses and scholars also explored topics such as "Policy Support, Development Direction, Investment Strategy, and Enhancement Path of Summer Leisure Tourism Industry", empowering the development of the cultural tourism industry from a professional perspective.

Fig.: Cultural Tourism Businesses and Academic Scholars Discussed to Build A Leisure Tourism Destination

Report on Summer Leisure Tourism Trend Releasedto Reach More Tourists and Partners for Changchun Cultural Tourism

Cultural tourism trend in summer has become a focus of the tourism community as the market heats up during the summer vacation. Zhang Xu, Trip.com Group's Vice President and General Manager of the Government Cooperation Department, released the "2023 Report on the Reservation Trend of China's Summer Leisure Tourism Consumption Market" at the forum. Trip search, flight and hotel bookings have been gradually heating up during the summer vacation.

According to Zhang Xu, number of trips and sales volume in Jilin Province has been increasing significantly during the vacation, with number of trips and sales volume up by 20% and 30% compared to those of 2019. Changchun delivered robust growth too, with number of trips, sales volume, and number of tourism orders up by 65%, 41%, and 63%, respectively from those of 2019. Zhangxu believed that the priority next for Changchun is to attract more tourists and increase per capita consumption. This includes attracting more cultural tourism brands and more tourist segments to Changchun.

During Changchun Urban Cultural Tourism Planning and Investment Promotion, Peng Decheng, dean of CYTS (Beijing) Tourism Planning Research Institute, introduced Changchun's urban cultural tourism planning and detailed on Changchun's most promising cultural tourism projects and key directions.

Business representatives from Trip.com Cultural Tourism Industry Alliance offered practical advice on Changchun's cultural tourism development next, including Wei Haibin, Co-founder of Betop Culture, Zhao Xiaozhi, General Manager of the Cultural Tourism Department of Beijing FlowingCloud Technology Co., Ltd., Ye Song, Vice President of Innovation Business Unit of Wanda Hotel Management Co., Ltd., and Zhang Junjie, President Assistant of Shenzhen L&A Design and Head of Qianxi Technology,

In addition to insights into the industry direction, leaders present also explored into new trends and forms of leisure tourism in recent years. In particular, greater attention was brought to camping, a key leisure tourism product. Guests shared their innovative and insightful ideas on how to build comprehensive leisure vacation products.

Fig.: Discussion on building comprehensive leisure vacation products

Yuan Jiye, member of the Party Group and Level II Inspector of the Changchun Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, and Li Ahong, Vice President of Trip.com Group and General Manager of the North China Company, jointly unveiled the Changchun Trip.com Cultural Tourism Investment Promotion Hall. The Hall will customize investment promotion plans for Changchun and narrow the cultural tourism gaps to improve the cultural tourism industry chain in Changchun.

The 2023 forum was a big success in presenting an attractive Changchun with its rich heritage in vehicle, film, sculpture, and science and culture, as well as its superior forests. Through government-business cooperation, Changchun will leverage the long-tail of the event to present more highlights that can reach more audience and inspire innovation in the industry, thus enriching Changchun's orientation as a cultural tourism destination.

Media Contact
Company Name: Am-News
Contact Person: Jane
Country: United States
Website: http://business.am-news.com/