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Joint Efforts to Build WTM for Better Future – Stories about Collections of WTM

2020.12.04

During the just concluded 3rd “WTA·Xianghu Dialogue”, the World Tourism Museum (WTM) held a grand donation ceremony for the donors to thank all sectors of society for their generosity in building the museum. For a short time, many people in the tourism sector have turned their attention to this new museum located in the Xianghu scenic spot in Hangzhou.

Zhang Dai, a writer of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in the Search for West Lake in My Dreams: “The West Lake is like a beauty while the Xianghu Lake is like a hermit. “Compared with the West Lake, Xianghu Lake is more connotative and profound. Yahushan Island as the central island of Xianghu scenic spot once featured steep cliff and beautiful scenery and had historical relics such as “Xiangyun Temple” and “Mass Organization for Lake Protection” during period of Ming and Qing Dynasty. WTM and the headquarters of WTA are located here.

With a construction area of about 36,000 square meters, WTM will become the world’s first large-scale comprehensive museum with tourism as the theme, integrating cultural display and communication, collection and research, exhibition and exchanges, tourism and leisure. It is scheduled to be completed and opened in 2021. The museum consists of the Comprehensive Tourism Hall, World Tourism Hall, China Tourism Hall, Tourism Experience Hall, WTA Members Hall and other exhibition halls, which will fully display the world tourism culture and tell the story of Chinese tourism to the world.

In 2019, WTM officially launched a global donation initiative at the 2nd “WTA·Xianghu Dialogue”. The collection covers seven categories: tourism history, tourism industry, tourism resources, Chinese tourism, tourism experiences, WTA and special tourism. As a member of WTA, China Tourism News took the lead in donating to WTM a previous collection, a 40-year one-volume edition of China Tourism News, which indicates that the history and present of tourism are handed over to the future, and also marks the beginning of the collection of museum collections of WTM.

Over the past year, with the strong support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, WTA and relevant departments, WTM has collected a number of collections, including ancient books, models, maps, passes, bills, tools used in travel and tourist crafts through the donation of WTA members, social collection and other channels. Among them, the China: Travels and Investigations in the Middle Kingdom, published in English in 1887, The Great Wall of China, published in English in 1909, and China: A Wonderful Journey, published in English in 1910, were important traveling literatures for the world to understand China at that time. There are also many Hangzhou elements in the collections, such as two English editions of The Travels of Marco Polo, published in 1844 and 1929, and the latter is one of the most authoritative English translations of the Travels of Marco Polo at the time. Up to now, WTM has received a total of 315 pieces (sets) of collections.

During the process of collection, there are many touching stories.

Responsible WTA Members

The year 2020 has been an extraordinary one for tourism and the COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on the global tourism. Nevertheless, the impact of the pandemic did not stop WTA members from supporting the construction of WTM. Hubei Cultural & Tourism Investment Group Co., Ltd. is on the front line of fighting the pandemic. As soon Wuhan ended lockdown, the company donated a number of precious collections to WTM, including replicas of national first-class cultural relics such as the drum with tigers and birds and the Sword of Goujian, as well as intangible cultural heritage handicrafts including Cliff Corridor of Enshi Grand Canyon and Huangmei Cross-stitch. China CYTS Tours Holding Co., Ltd. has sorted out in detail its development history in the past 40 years since its establishment in 1980, donating to WTM the objects witnessing its poverty alleviation by public welfare and innovations in industry and standards. Guilin Tang Dynasty Tours Co., Ltd. donated all the objects witnessing its participation in the local poverty alleviation through tourism in the countries along the “Belt and Road” initiative over the years. Each object reflects the responsibility of people engaged in tourism and embodies warm stories about poverty alleviation through tourism. It also highlights the concept of “Better Tourism, Better Life, Better World” advocated by WTA and the goal of “Promote Tourism for Peace, Development and Poverty Alleviation”.

Generous Support of Enthusiastic People

The construction of WTM has also received a positive response from the enthusiastic people in China. Ms. Ren Benhui, a 91-year-old Hangzhou resident, and her two sons are running a special business – Zhou’s Wine Bottle Collection. It took their family 30 years and three generations to collect over 3,000 special wine bottles from all over the world. Now, they selected 100 wine bottles with the most cultural and tourism characteristics and donated them to WTM. The biggest wish of Ms. Ren is that more people could feel the unique charm of wine bottle culture in the museum. Zhou Zhen is an ordinary taxi driver in Hangzhou, but he also has another special identity. In 2015, Zhou Zhen and his family stood out from more than 2,000 families and were elected as the “Non-governmental Tourism Ambassador” of Hangzhou. Together with Dominica and his family from America, they launched a 45-day global publicity tour, covering three continents, 7 countries and 13 cities, to promote Hangzhou to the world. When accidentally reading the news that Hangzhou was preparing to build WTM, Zhou Zhen immediately came to the museum voluntarily and donated the collection representing the honor of Hangzhou’s “Non-Governmental Tourism Ambassador” to the museum, saying with a smile: “Finally, I finally found a home for these objects witnessing the people-to-people tourism exchanges between China and foreign countries! ” After learning WTA’s call of social donation, Zhan Hongge from Shenyang and Qian Changjiang from Nanjing, who are well-known tourist souvenirs collectors in China, immediately contacted the office responsible for preparations to build the museum and donated hundreds of tourism related cultural relics, filling the gap in the museum’s tourism collections during the period of the Republic of China. At the donation ceremony, they clasped hands tightly and looked firm, showing the love and support of tourist souvenirs collectors for WTM.

The construction of WTM is like playing a symphony across time and space, which involves tourists and people from all sectors of society. At present, the collection work of WTM is advancing in a tense and orderly way, and the museum is also looking forward to more positive responses from all walks of life. In the future, these great collections will tell beautiful stories about tourism for people around the world in WTA on the side of the picturesque Xianghu Lake.

Source: China Tourism