Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me for the Conference. I was very glad and surprised this morning to see the top officials supporting the IMTA sports and activities. And I think it’s a step into a right direction and it fits beautifully into the circle’s initiatives that have been started last year. And there are also supports from the top officials of China. Tourism is sometimes described as an inside-out sport because people are spending money to country without having exporting anything. Also, billions of dollars are spent every year in this country to spread out the nation brand all over the world. And at the same time, last year, there was growth in the number of tourists only 3.8%. And I was glad this morning that was 40 in the province of Guizhou, which I only would like to congratulate. Over the year, the flow of $190 billion out of China through the activities of so called active tourism. While active tourism brings $35 million back to the country. This is the opposite to be goods exchange figures and there is need to change it so as to close the gap which is not very small. There is a short presentation of one of many possible approaches to the matter. This is brief introduction of me. I’ve been active in tourism for over 30 years and was active in almost every field of related industry maybe except inbound tourism which I never lead.

We have a proposition here. And, as I said, establishing IMTA is a milestone in tourism development and could be a key step to opening up the province to tourists, and of course, invite all effects that tourism brings. These days, you can bring the unwanted consequences of tourism in Barcelona or other cities that they say they have too much tourism that influences markets and staff. These are side effects. There is no doubt about the good affects of tourism and the national economics. These include regional economic, culture, demographics. You can invite young and creative people, which go to add good education and the good influence on the quality of life and sustainability. Important issues also include preserving nature and resources which China has the responsibility of both these. And I think the goal behind all these practical goals is meeting the social peace through providing jobs and extending work experience from professionals from all over the world. I think the supporting of the inhabitants of Guizhou Province is being part of the innovative ways of how to present the province. It’s a good way of how to promote it.

This is what’s going on elsewhere. I just picked one association. They mainly deal with tourism which has to do with snow and snow activities. You can find on their pages all information on mountain tourism potential. But this is from the skiing center’s point of view. And they focus solely on the skiing. They don’t think about indoor slopes and snow dorms. I’ve positive that China has several of these on its territory. Of course, Guizhou Province gets no attention of these people. Although China’s ambitions are in this terms high, especially for 2022 Winter Olympic Games. But what’s important, these people are focused on the mountain flowers. And they visit mountains all year round. So, Guizhou can attract visitors in all seasons. This is what the opportunity lies. This is what we can call a good point like a preparation stage for other supplementary activities to IMTA. We can more or less know what we need to be successful and what natural beauty associates you have. There is no doubt about that. Culture richness, that’s the same thing. I just want to use it as an example. Like in Duabi, the ladies are presenting genuine Chinese tea in a beautifully simple wooden case. And this is just, you know, one example of how to attract the tourists. It has gained importance. Of course infrastructure is crucial. And what is above the infrastructure is sufficient approval. This is of leaders of the province and we saw this morning that this one you have.

Also important is setting the goals. If you have no goals, you have nothing to measure. And you cannot go back and research. Also important is defining the international markets. Because, you know, out of the growth I mentioned at the beginning that 3.8%, 80% of it was the people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. You need to find a different approach for Europeans, for Latinos, for almost every part of the world.

As for development, we must think of plans according to the budget. This goes hand in hand. And I think it is now necessary to have, you know, high budgets. You can do good things with a moderate budget. You do allocate them wisely. It would be crucial for success. And the bottom line is time, patience, hard work and common sense.

I’d like to say that as you see tourism in a wider and bigger frame, it’s about the culture, economical and public diplomacy. Because if you don’t have general public knowing about what you to present and so you can spend all money you wish to. It will be in vain. So, the good thing is above all deciding tourism campaigns. It’s to fulfill multilateral and bilateral agreement, exchanges, organized cultures, scientific collaborations, foreign programs and projects in the native languages of the feeling market.

These can include getting familiar with culture and lifestyle of the province, increasing popularity of the province and enthusiasm offers and engaging in cultural communication with opinion leaders in the feeling markets. Of course it influences public opinions in favor of IMTA goals and objectives. At the end of the day, you should create a model that includes a multitude of subjects on both sides of this province and markets in order to communicate with.

There are different trends and identifications of tourism that can be used. Currently, so the most modern trends are in close collaboration with the foundations that are focusing on green tourism, focusing on preserving natural heritage and local organization. As you can see the common projects of private sector, you can combine financial forces and funding, using them for the infrastructure projects for instance. It is in fine relations with other municipalities in the region that faced with same problems, same opportunities as you do. And then finally worked with specialized agencies. These are targeted groups. These days, the common belief is that the role of general public is ever growing. It’s not so much the opinion leaders that can create the fame of products of a region.

So you can only combine these approaches and targeted groups in the province among them. I think there is creativity of people in the province using the stories and culture. In the morning, we’ve mentioned that this province is famous by having a lot of minorities here. They all have, I’m sure, the history and their famous people throughout the history. In the future, it will be easier for you to use the knowledge of the province to attract investments and people. Well, it is very good thing from my personal experience to have a good ambassador or ambassadors if you know. I worked with a Japanese soprano 6 years ago. She was a very famous pop singer in Japan, but almost unknown in Europe. She acted for three years in Japanese market in favor of not only general public but others of the countries. We had surprisingly good results from that cooperation. It really works.

This is a little stage. You have done almost everything you can to do product development and form the brand of the province which should consist of attractive, not very widely known and surprising history of the province. What’s the current role of the province? Technologically, in this province, you have super modern dish. This is, I think, you need to show because this is amazing. They know Guizhou in China, but they don’t communicate with the province. And this is also opportunity. That’s unique, I think. And that can support your international position and context.

Culture and lifestyle, these are things that work with the general public, and also with opinion leaders. And you can involve it in presence. You can organize the lifestyle sport of tourism to show your life in the province. And it could be very effective. In terms of innovation, science and education, you can present yourself famous people such as individuals you have attracted in the past to the province. You can do academic partnerships study for province students and bring in foreign studies to the students here. This all can create the conditions for so much embraced mass tourism all over the world. There is already a big detail after you fix your priorities with the culture, economic and public diplomacy among this tourism. These are some of the tools that are probably not really good available from this instance. These are practical tools for promoting the region’s exhibitions, practical prints and also BI. These are the tips, partnerships and pools. Especially pools, they have very good effect on the private sector. My experience with the pools is that we formed the pools with the South American Alliance in the past. It brought 500% more interest during over 5 years, which was really compared to the investment. It was gold mine for the entrepreneurs. One new thing that can be tested is funding for special projects. And of course, media campaigns, digital online media of TV and many more are getting close. So this is conclusion. I also picked up an example of what we did for Chinese tourists by doing a project. Maybe we can talk about it later during the program of the conference.

Thank you for your attention.