2022.07.15
On July 13, under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Asia Conference on Marine Tourism 2022 was held in Ningbo, a city in Zhejiang province of China. The Conference was co-sponsored by the Ministry’s Bureau of International Exchanges and Cooperation, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and Ningbo Municipal People’s Government. Chaired by Ningbo’s mayor Tang Feifan, the meeting was attended and addressed by Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan, Party Secretary of Ningbo Peng Jiaxue, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Cheng Yuechong, Secretary General of World Tourism Alliance (WTA) Liu Shijun, and Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona.
Rao Quan, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism
Mr. Rao said that the Conference is an important measure to implement the initiative of building a maritime community with a shared future put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping, build China into a strong maritime country and promote the high-quality development of the marine economy. In recent years, marine tourism has been developing rapidly. In developing resources of marine tourism, Asian countries should strike a balance between development and conservation, speed and quality of development, development scale and the marine carrying capacity, and economic returns and ecological benefits, to realize benign interaction between the marine ecology, economy and society. China sincerely invites the cultural and tourism sectors of Asian countries to join hands to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of Asia’s marine tourism and to create new milestones in the development of Asia’s marine economy.
Peng Jiaxue, Party Secretary of Ningbo
In his speech, Mr. Peng Jiaxue noted that Ningbo is a renowned historical and cultural city, an economic hub on the southern end of the Yangtze River Delta. It is a coastal city that has long thrived on the marine economy, and occupied an important position in marine civilization and global industry chains and supply chains. By hosting this conference, the city will work to upgrade itself as a modern coastal metropolis as a whole, and a major destination where visitors can appreciate the beauty of the ocean, trace the history of marine civilization, enjoy marine culture and tours, and appreciate China’s maritime strengths.
Cheng Yuechong, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province
Mr. Cheng said that Zhejiang has unique advantages in developing marine economy and the marine tourism. The province will attach more importance to them, refine the marine development blueprint, and effectively manage and make good use of the marine resources. He also warmly welcomed people from at home and abroad to visit and invest in Zhejiang and share the latest achievements of the marine economy.
Liu Shijun, WTA Secretary General
According to Mr. Liu, the ocean is home to abundant natural resources and China boasts a long marine culture. Tourism based on marine resources is rich in content and enjoys broad prospects. At the Second UN Ocean Conference which concluded just two weeks ago, the UN called for solutions for sustainable ocean management, opening a new chapter in global ocean action. In this context, the timing of today’s meeting cannot be more appropriate. We gather here from different sectors to contribute to the common development of marine tourism and chart the course for a beautiful future of marine economy. We believe that through our joint efforts, we will blaze a sustainable, high-quality development path for marine tourism.
The Asia Conference on Marine Tourism 2022
Themed “Promoting the Development of Asia and Sharing the Marine Economy,” the Conference invited embassies and consulates of several Asian countries in China, international maritime organizations, marine research institutions and think tanks, and nearly 200 representatives, experts and scholars from cultural and tourism departments of 12 provincial regions and eight coastal cities in China to attend. The aim was to establish a high-end platform for cooperation in maritime tourism in Asia and call on Asian countries to attach importance to marine conservation, realize the orderly development of marine resources and promote the development of marine tourism.