Distinguished Mr.Edmund Ho, dear Chairman Mr.Dominique de Villepin, ladies and gentlemen,dear friends, good morning.
Today, the International Mountain Tourism Alliance headquarters building was inaugurated. This is the first time that IMTA held an annual conference in its living room instead of in a hotel. I believe this is a milestone for the development of IMTA.On behalf of Guizhou Provincial People’s Government, I would like to extend my warm congratulations on the inauguration of IMTA Headquarters Building and the convening of the 2019 Annual Conference of IMTA, and also give our gratitude to all people who give support to the development of mountain tourism. Thank you very much for your long-term support.
Mountain tourism is the development trend of future world tourism industry and the founding of IMTA follows this trend.Today the headquarters building reminds me that in the October 2015, we had the firstInternational Mountain Tourism Conference in Xing Yi, Guizhouprovince. At that time, Mr. Chen Min'er, Secretary of Guizhou provincial committee of the CPC, put forward the idea of "establishing an International Mountain Tourism Alliance". Through our concerted efforts, in August 2017,with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs officially approved the establishment of the International Mountain Tourism Alliance.
Today the headquarters building of IMTA is successfully inauguratedand our membership has also increased from the initial 111 to today’s 155, including both group members and individual members from 30 countries and regions on five continents which marks that IMTA is growing day by day.
IMTA always follow the principle of protecting mountain resources, preserving mountain civilization, promoting mountain economy to the benefit of the people living in mountainous regions. Around the construction of the three platforms, IMTA actively promote international mountain tourism exchanges and cooperation, carry out relevant research, and promote the international flow of mountain tourism consultation, resources and capital. It has successfully built influential brands such as "International Mountain Tourism Day" and "Dialogue among Famous Mountains in the World" which have made positive efforts to promote the development of global mountain economy and achieved important results in stages.
Guizou is the Kingdom of mountains, 92.5% of the land is covered by mountains. Mountains are the loveliest scene to see in Guizhou province. There are mountains, canyons, waterfalls, caves, lakes and hot springseverywhere which constitute the background of Guizhou.With no severe cold in winter and no intense heat in summer, Guizhou is a natural ideal place to formulate and test mountain tourism standards, explore and implement the promotion of poverty alleviation and development of mountain people.
Starting from this year, the Guizhou provincial people’s government have made rigorous efforts, such as carrying out the general survey of mountain tourism resources in China and formulating and implementing the plan for the development of mountain tourism in the whole region, to achieve the goal of making Guizhou a famous resort for tourism and building a first-class domestic resort and health care destination. We are vigorously enriching the tourism industry, promoting the construction of being a hot spring province, a cableway province, worldwide wine culture tourism belt, International astronomical science tourism belt, Qianli Wujiang ice river holiday tourism belt, long march red culture tourism belt, and constantly strengthening the level of mountain infrastructure and services. The popularity and reputation of Mountain Park province and colorful Guizhou style brands have been greatly improved. Our tourism economy is now growing at a momentum speed.
Guizhou, as a key province of mountain tourism, is also the initiator of IMTA. It has the common desire and expectation in promoting the development of mountain tourism. We are willing to jointly carry out the construction of mountain tourism standard system.
At present, mountain tourism is developing rapidly in the world, but there are still many gaps in standards certification, resource evaluation, industrial development and other fields. We support IMTA to set up the mountain tourism standardization and certification committee.We hope to actively develop the formulation and certification of mountain tourism standards, the construction of mountain tourism evaluation system, research and prediction based on Guizhou Province, so as to provide Chinese programs for the development of mountain tourism industry and explore world standards.
We are willing to jointly develop the product system of mountain tourism. Guizhou is rich in mountain tourism resources. We hope to make use of the rich knowledge, technology, research achievements and product industry development achievements of IMTA members in the field of mountain tourism to jointly build a product system of mountain tourism, such as mountain tourism, medical health care tourism, leisure and holiday tourism, so as to turn the advantages of mountain resources in Guizhou into industrial advantages, economic advantages, and advantages of enriching the people, and highlight the mountain and local characteristics. We will continue to expand the supply of middle and high-end diversified tourism products to realize the sustainable and high-quality development of mountain tourism industry.
I really agree with some very important points in the speech Chairman Mr.Dominique de Villepin just delivered. I think it is very far sighted and very in line with the current situation of mountain tourism development.
We are making effort to make Guizhou to be a strong and powerful tourism province and we are willing to work with IMTA to explore the market of international mountain tourism.
Withthe "double first-class" tourism development goal, we are now promoting the construction of Guizhou as an international first-class mountain tourism destination, which is mainly depending on the number of foreign tourists to Guizhou. We also hope that with the help of such an important platform - IMTA, we can promote Guizhou mountain tourism resources and products,especially focusing on the countries and regions along"The Belt andRoad"Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States and other important tourist markets, accelerate the internationalization level and international influence of Guizhou tourism, so that more tourists can share the wonderful and beautiful mountain tourism in Guizhou.
We are willing to jointly hold the International Conference of Mountain Tourism and Outdoor Sports with IMTA, which is the only national and international event approved by China at the national level with the theme of mountain tourism. After five consecutive years of successful hosting, its influence and leading force are constantly expanding, and it has become an important activity for international mountain tourism and outdoor sports tourism exchanges, exhibitions and cooperation. We welcome IMTA to jointly plan and organize theInternational Conference of Mountain Tourism and Outdoor Sports and attract more experts, scholars and entrepreneurs to participate in it. We hope to release the important research results of IMTA and enhance the participation, popularity and authority of the conference through such an important activity platform.
Distinguished guests, as the world’s first International organization with the theme of mountain tourism,headquarters building of IMTA is home to IMTA members. We sincerely hope that our members can carry out academic exchange, training and research based on this, gather international mountain tourism talents, resources and capital here, attract more relevant enterprises to settle down, and build an incubation base for mountain tourism entrepreneurship industry.
As the location place of IMTA, Guizhou Province will spare no effort to support the construction and development of IMTA with human, material and financial resources, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with IMTA and its members, and contribute more to the development of international mountain tourism.
2019 Annual Conference of IMTA is aimed to working together to build a community with a shared future in mountain tourism; itfully demonstrates the responsibility and era mission of IMTA to promote the sustainable and high-quality development of mountain tourism. We believe that under the joint efforts of the guests, this annual conference will surely achieve significant achievements and bring new and strong energy to the continuous growth of international mountain tourism and world tourism industry.
Finally, wish this annual conference a great success and wish everyone here all the best and have a good time in Guizhou.
Thank you.
