WTA Chair Mr. ZHANG Xu Attends Opening Ceremony of the 21ST China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition Area

On September 26, the opening ceremony of the 21ST China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition Area was held at the Guilin International Convention & Exhibition Center. Minister of Tourism of the Kingdom of Cambodia H.E. Huot Hak and Mr. ZHANG Xu, WTA Chair, made remarks. ZHOU Jiabin, Deputy Director of Standing Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region People’s Congress and Secretary of CPC Guilin Municipal Committee, officially announced the opening of the exhibition. XU Rong, Deputy Director of the Bureau of International Exchanges and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and LI Chu, Mayor of Guilin, also addressed the audience.

In his speech, Mr. ZHANG Xu referred to President XI Jinping’s significant remarks at the ASEAN-China Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations in 2021, titled “For a Shared Future and Our Common Home”. He highlighted the importance of building a closer China-ASEAN community of shared destiny for a more prosperous and beautiful region and world. Against this backdrop, the China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition Area serves as a platform for tourism cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, exemplifying the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity. As a comprehensive, non-governmental, and non-profit international tourism organization, the World Tourism Alliance is committed to promoting interconnectivity and shared governance in global tourism at a non-governmental level. Mr. ZHANG Xu emphasized that WTA is willing to work with all parties to leverage the international platform provided by the China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition Area, strengthening exchanges and cooperation, and promoting the sustainable, rapid, and healthy development of the tourism industry in China and ASEAN countries. This, in turn, will contribute further to building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

This year’s China-ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition Area attracted cultural and tourism institutions, embassies, and enterprises from 43 countries and regions across ASEAN, Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Participants also included cultural and tourism departments from 14 provinces, regions, and cities in China, as well as leading domestic cultural institutions and tourism enterprises. All ten ASEAN countries were represented, with over 1,300 participating enterprises.