Photo taken on June 3, 2018 shows Wusi Square in Qingdao, East China's
Shandong province. The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
Summit is scheduled for June 9 to 10 in Qingdao.
Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are
expected to sign a joint action plan for 2019-20 during the two-day
summit in Qingdao to further boost tourism, a senior Chinese official
said on Friday.
The new plan aims to offer more abundant tourism products, improve
services, better secure the legal rights and safety of tourists and
introduce new technology, such as big data analysis, said Xue Yaping,
director of the tourism promotion and international cooperation
department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
"SCO member countries are close neighbors," he said. "Their tourism
features complement each other and thus create huge potential for the
market."
Great achievements have been made in tourism in recent years. In
2017, China attracted 3.61 million international visits from citizens of
other SCO member countries, up by 11.75 percent year-on-year. That
included 1.67 million from Russia and about 800,000 from India, ministry
data show.
On the other hand, Russia received 2.3 million visits from China last
year, and India and Kazakhstan each received about 200,000, according
to the ministry.
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With the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese
tourists have shown an increasing interest in Central Asia, which is
along the primary route of the ancient Silk Road, Xue said.
However, the relatively complicated visa application procedures of Central Asian countries are sometimes a bottleneck, he said.
"More measures will be taken in the coming years to simplify visa
application and customs procedures under the joint action plan," Xue
said. "And we'll develop more tourism products to 'connect the dots',
enabling Chinese visitors to travel to multiple Central Asian countries
within one trip."
In addition, more "package products" that include the Chinese
mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan will be promoted in other SCO
countries.
Since the China Railway Express to Europe has become a freight artery
connecting many Chinese and European cities in terms of logistics, the
rail network, which crosses Central Asia, can also be used for tourism
to offer visitors abundant experiences.
"Such a cooperative platform (under the SCO) is mutually beneficial,"
he said. "We can understand each other's actual needs through more
dialogue."
In May, top tourism administrators of SCO member countries met in
Wuhan, Hubei province, where a draft was made for such a joint action
plan.
Though Xue said there will be no specific target for the number of
mutual visits within the next two years, he emphasized that
comprehensive cooperation in tourism will have long-term effects.
Source- ChinaDaily
