Travel company leaders optimistic about Yunnan's cultural tourism

POST TIME: 26 August, 2016 00:00 00 AM

BY LIU XIAO

Travel company leaders optimistic about Yunnan's cultural tourism

Yunnan has been becoming a world famous tourist destination and attracting more and more overseas tourists. In the first half of this year, Yunnan received 5.74 million overseas tourists, a 4.24% increase over the same period of last year. Photo by Yang Zheng

While the Yunnan Cultural Industry Expo was held in Kunming from August 11 to 15, the Third China International (Yunnan) Cultural Tourism Investment Fair (CICTIF) was also convened. During the two-day event, more than 100 cultural tourism industry leaders carried out in-depth discussions on region-based tourism, tourist culture, industry-media integration, intellectual property development and other topics.

According to Hao Weidong, secretary-general of CICTIF, Yunnan is rich in cultural tourism resources. This abundance of riches is attracting a lot of private and industrial capital, and CICTIF is hoping to attract more investment and commerce.

During the dialogue session, Hao Weidong said, “my mind was filled with visions and ideas, which will take me several days to digest.” The seven dialogues covered tourism and holiday destinations, tourism performing arts, intellectual property, intangible heritage, agriculture + tourism, culture and technology and experiential economy. Speakers from all walks of life shared their insights on these topics and greatly broadened the horizons of the audience.

Wang Runshi, secretary-general of the Culture and Finance Club of the China Association for the Promotion of Development Finance, believes that with tourist towns springing up like mushrooms all over the country, we must abandon homogenous urban development. Only by constantly tapping local history, culture and customs, will we be able to build uniquely charming tourism towns and drive consumption in `the surrounding areas.

The buzz phrase “intellectual property” was repeatedly mentioned at CICTIF. During a dialogue called“ Next Draught – Looking at Cultural Industry Fairs and Cultural and Creative Industries from the Perspective of Intellectual Property”, the opening remarks of Tang Shenghan, cultural and creative designer of Taipei Palace Museum, were, “The next draught of China’s cultural and creative industries has arrived!” The audience burst into warm applause after this statement. Based on 26 years of experience, Tang predicted that China’s cultural and creative industries are ushering in great new opportunities.

Leading players in the outdoor industry shared their ideas on the topic of “Pan-outdoors, Sports and Leisure Industries in the Context of Experiential Economies”. Hua Guozhi, assistant general manager of Yunnan Lancang-Mekong Air Travel Group Company, believes that Yunnan is especially suitable for developing RV campgrounds because there are always places where you can travel in all seasons of the year.