2020.10.26
On November 13-14, 2020, the WTA·Xianghu Dialogue will be held in Hangzhou. As one of the core brand activities of WTA, this year’s event is themed on “Shaping the Future: Rebuilding Confidence & Embracing the New Normal in Travel & Tourism”, which not only shows WTA’s concern about the current situation of tourism, but also reflects its judgment and confidence in future tourism development.
The year 2020 has become an important node in the course of human history. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought profound impacts on the global political and economic pattern and situation, and put tourism into an unprecedented crisis and the worst recession in decades. Today, we are facing a grim situation of pandemic control worldwide, with the virus continuously spreading; the mounting unilateralism and protectionism threatens the political foundation and business environment on which the international tourism industry depends. These all mean that the recovery of global tourism as a whole is still difficult to achieve in the short term.
Despite the severe impact of the pandemic, WTA, facing the future, are confident that the global tourism will recover from the pandemic and achieve sustainable development. As for the pandemic prevention and control, people will have a better understanding and research of the novel coronavirus on a gradual basis. As long as all countries adhere to the principle of putting people first and life first, eliminating prejudice and cooperating and uniting with each other, we humans will prevail over the pandemic. In terms of the attributes and law of development of tourism, we have full confidence on a better ground that,
First of all, tourism, as a rigid demand of modern life, will not change. As history evolves and the economy and society develop, the rigid living needs of people in modern times have gradually improved and evolved from the most basic food, clothing, housing and transportation to the spiritual level. Tourism and leisure activities enjoyed by only a few people in the past are also becoming a basic right and way of life for ordinary people. Taking China as an example, in four decades of reform and opening up, tourism has developed from a channel for foreign reception and foreign exchange earning to today’s mass tourism era. In 2019, the number of trips per capita reached 4.3 times, becoming an indispensable way of life for ordinary people. With the advent of the information age for global economy, an increasing number of developing countries have successively achieved industrialization or started post-industrialization. Tourism demand will continue to grow and release, which constitutes the basic driving force for the sound and sustainable development of global tourism in the long term.
Second, the tide of pursuing peace, development and cooperation will continue. The development of tourism depends on a peaceful and stable political environment as well as mutual trust and extensive cooperation between countries. Although unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonism threaten the building of a fair and rational new international political and economic order, peace and development remains the theme of our times and multilateralism is the only right way for the world to move forward. Our world has developed into a global village with everyone connected to each other. As the economic and social development of various countries is increasingly interconnected and affecting each other, to promote interconnectivity, speed up integrated development, and seek common prosperity has become an inevitable choice of the vast majority of countries in the world. This is also the political prerequisite for the long-term improvement and sustainable development of global tourism.
Third, the important position of tourism in the international industrial pattern will not change. According to the report released by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in recent years, the trade in tourism services has accounted for nearly 30% of global service export, and tourism exports have been growing faster than commodity exports for many consecutive years. Especially in recent years, the global economy has been slowing down synchronously. In sharp contrast to extremely weak manufacturing and trade, the service sector continues to grow globally, while trade in tourism services has become a crucial factor driving the growth of international trade, and one of the largest components of trade in service. Tourism has become a leading industry in the international service industry for its strong correlation. The position has been formed in the history of economic and social development of humans, and will not change fundamentally due to the pandemic. This is also the industrial foundation for the long-term improvement and sustainable development of global tourism.
While maintaining confidence, we should rationally face the changes that have taken place and that are coming. In the face of many phased problems, with industrial transformation and upgrading, technological innovation and progress and changes in social development, tourism itself is also in a key stage of industrial renewal and iteration. The pandemic has accelerated the exposure of weaknesses already existing in the industry, and pricked a lot of beautiful bubbles. In spite of facing industry pains, we should keep coolheaded and think about how tourism can reflect on lessons from the crisis, sum up experience, and get enlightenment. Changes in future tourism development:
(1) Putting more emphasis on safety in future development of tourism. Safety is the bottom line and lifeline of tourism. The pandemic is a test of public safety and emergency management capabilities of the tourism industry, and reveals some deficiencies in the public safety governance system of global tourism. After experiencing the pandemic, all countries will pay unprecedented attention to tourism safety. It is foreseeable that, The community will play a more critical role in public safety management of tourism, and become a basic force in response to emergencies like COVID-19; the interaction between management subjects in different industries will be further enhanced to improve response efficiency and governance effectiveness; keeping authoritative information open and transparent is the most effective way to prevent rumors and panic, and the effective application of new media will ensure information symmetry and government authority; tourism enterprises that shoulder the responsibility of tourism safety should further improve their emergency response capacity, and explore how to guarantee and enhance profitability through products, operations and management while ensuring public safety.
(2) Putting more emphasis on responsibility in future development of tourism. Although tourism has existed since ancient times, it is not regarded as an industry category until modern times. After development of more than 100 years, tourism in the broad sense has become one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world, creating 10% of the jobs in the world. With great capacity comes great responsibility. Tourism is now affecting and changing the world in a powerful and profound way. We tourism practitioners should, other than limiting our vision to the development and economic benefits of tourism itself, pay more attention to the role of tourism in culture, education, living conditions, sustainable development and even social justice, among others. It reflects the original aspiration of WTA’s purpose of “Better Tourism, Better Life, Better World”, and its mission of “Promoting Tourism for Peace, Development and Poverty Alleviation”. Tourism practitioners should think beyond tourism from a big picture, have a higher sense of responsibility and make more people realize the role and potential of tourism in promoting social justice and sustainable development.
(3) Putting more emphasis on quality in future development of tourism. For any industry worldwide, the improvement of quality is an eternal topic. In China, with the advent of mass tourism era and its per capita GDP topping USD 10,000, there is a more prominent demand of people for quality in tourism consumption. As we all know, tourism consumption demand is showing the characteristics of segmentation and individualization. In fact, from this phenomenon, we can find that it is actually an inevitable trend that tourism consumption permeates daily life. Today, the development of transportation and information technology makes the boundary between tourism and life more blurred. Tourism has increasingly become a way of life in different places. Since it’s a way of life, it must be multivariate and diversified instead of simply patterned and standardized, highlighting high quality and good experience. After the COVID-19 outbreak, people are more aware of the value of life and freedom, and hope to enjoy life through tourism, putting forward higher requirements for the quality of tourism products. To this end, both the government and tourism enterprises should firmly understand and adhere to the path of high-quality development.
(4) Putting more emphasis on technology in future development of tourism. In recent years, the development trajectory of tourism from the rise of online OTAs, the application of new media, the cross-border entry of technology companies, etc., is interpreting the truth that “science and technology are a primary productive force”. It’s often said that we have entered the era of mass tourism, but the advent of this era is not only driven by consumption capacity, but by technology. The rapid development of mobile Internet and big data has put an end to the original tourism market with highly asymmetric information, bringing us into today’s new tourism market with individualized and personalized characteristics. The Chinese government has proposed to build new infrastructure including 5G, high-speed railways and rail transit, new energy vehicles, big data centers, AI and industrial Internet, which will greatly boost and have a profound impact on tourism from multiple aspects. The competition of tourism in the future, whether from a state or an enterprise perspective, is the competition of quality and technology in the final analysis. Without quality, assurance and the leadership of technology, it’s unlikely to establish a leading position in the global industrial chain, no matter how big the market is.
(5) Putting more emphasis on talents in future development of tourism. The development of an industry can’t be separated from talents, vice versa. The two are complementary and mutually conditional. It’s often said that tourism creates 10% of the world’s jobs. This figure is very important, but we should also attach great importance to the quality of employment in tourism. We should provide a more dignified life for front-line guides and waiters, and attract and train more top talents by promoting high-quality of the industry. Resembling the tourism industry, the development of tourism education should transform from quantity to quality, and pay more attention to the cultivation of specialized talents as well as versatile and practical talents to adapt to the characteristics of openness, pluralism and intersecting of tourism. In particular, the rapid development of new forms of business and wide application of new technologies require us to value the cultivation of practical and creative capabilities, putting forward high requirements for the educational philosophy, teaching mode and response capacity of tourism education.
Although there is still a long way to go before comprehensive recovery and revitalization of the international tourism industry, we believe that the most difficult moment has passed, the mankind will eventually overcome COVID-19, and the trend of world economic recovery and development as well as people’s demand for tourism and leisure consumption will not change. Moreover, we have full confidence in the future that the tourism industry facing the future will certainly be transformative, innovative and more advanced. On November 13-14, with the theme of “Shaping the Future: Rebuilding Confidence & Embracing the New Normal in Travel & Tourism”, the 3rd “WTA·Xianghu Dialogue” will be held in Hangzhou, to focus on discussions of such topics as construction of global tourism governance system, industry responsibility, crisis response, scientific and technological innovation and education development. Through “WTA·Xianghu Dialogue”, the World Tourism Alliance (WTA) will send a message to global tourism that as long as we have firm confidence, uphold cooperation and seek win-win results, the global tourism will pull out of recession, embrace reform and achieve revitalization and development at a new level.