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Li Keqiang’s Congratulatory Message on the Founding of WTA

2017.09.13

On September 12, 2017, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China sent a congratulatory message on the founding of the World Tourism Alliance (WTA), of which a ceremony was held in Chengdu.

In the message Li Keqiang indicated that the tourism is an unrivalled comprehensive industry in terms of the scale, growth speed and connection with other industries. It is an important way to bolster economic development and boost nation-to-nation contact; it is conducive to strengthening people-to-people communication and building a community of shared destiny. Over recent years, the global tourism development has caught the world’s attention. The number of worldwide outbound tourists has been on the rise for seven consecutive years, which plays a big role in working up consumption, increasing employment, enabling the global economic recovery and promoting social harmony.

Li Keqiang pointed out that the tourism development faces both opportunities and challenges of the era. To achieve balanced and inclusive development of tourism requires all relevant parties to form a synergy by conducting extensive communication and deepening cooperation. The government and the non-governmental sectors including the tourism associations, enterprises and think tanks should make due contributions to sustainable development of the tourism industry by leveraging the wisdom and resource endowments in the global tourism community. To that end, the WTA will provide a new platform and bring new opportunities. The Chinese government is willing to follow and support the construction of the WTA and further open up the space for tourism development. The tourism communities from around the world are welcome to join the WTA and play a constructive role in continuously improving the global tourism governance system.

The WTA, founded at the initiative of China Tourism Association, is the first non-governmental and non-profit international tourism organization. With 89 founding members from 29 countries and regions around the world, the WTA held its founding ceremony in Chengdu, which was attended by over 1,000 representatives from 125 countries who were there to attend the 22nd UNWTO General Assembly.

(First published on www.gov.cn)