2009 National Tourism Working Conference opens in Beijing

(2009 National Tourism Working Conference was held in Beijing in the morning of 7 January 2009.)

(Shao Qiwei gave a work report at 2009 National Tourism Working Conference.)

In the morning of 7 January, 2009 National Tourism Working Conference was held in Beijing. Shao Qiwei, Chairman of National Tourism Administration, delivered a work report at the Conference. By reviewing and summarizing the main missions in 2008 in the report, Shao analyzed earnestly the current situation of tourism industry and deployed the tasks in 2009. The conference was presided over by Wang Zhifa, Vice Chairman of National Tourism Administration (NTA). Also presented the conference were Du Yili and  Dujiang, Vice Chairmen of National Tourism Administration, and Liu Jinping, member of the group office of CPC in NTA and leader of the discipline inspection group in NTA resided by CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection) attended the conference.

Representatives from such ministries and commissions as the General Office of the State Council, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture, National Audit Office, Development Research Center of the State Council, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and Civil Aviation Administration of China; 31 chairmen of the Tourist Bureaus of various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government and Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps; representatives from cities specifically designated in the state plan, cities at vice-provincial level and tourist cities; representatives from some national tourist resorts and tourist enterprises; some experts and scholars from tourism academic community and the persons in charge in various departments and offices of NTA, units directly under NTA and the representative offices of NTA attended the conference.

Shao Qiwei first reviewed the work concerning the tourism industry in 2008. Shao said, 2008 was an unusual and eventful year for the development of both the Party and the nation. In 2008, by firmly carrying out all the deployments by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the tourism industry took efforts actively to cope with various difficulties and challenges of the time by uniting in one heart and one mind and managed to maintain steady growth. The tourism industry promoted the image and service quality of China's tourism by serving Beijing Olympic Games heart and soul. It promoted the scientific development of the tourism industry by actively propelling transitions of the development mode, strengthened the stamina of tourism industry by accelerating innovation and reform and further reinforced the cooperation and communication in the tourism industry by opening wider to the outside world.　

According to estimates, the number of the tourists for domestic tourism in the full year of 2008 may reach 1.7 billion, increasing by about 6%; the revenue for the domestic tourism may hit RMB870 billion, with an increase of about 12%; while the number of inbound tourists may reach 130 million, decreasing by about 2%; the number of inbound tourists staying over may reach 53 million, decreasing by about 3%; the foreign exchange earnings from tourism is about USD40 billion, down by about 5%; the number of outbound tourists is 46 million, increasing by about 12%, and the total revenue from tourism may reach RMB1.14 trillion, with an increase of about 4%.

Shao Qiwei analyzed the current situation of China's tourism industry in the speech. He said, due to the influence of financial crisis, more uncertainties will appear in the development of China's tourism industry and China's tourism industry will face more rigorous challenges at present and over a long period in the future. First, obvious slowdown of the world economy will exert significant influence on the development of tourism industry; Second, there is an expected decrease of demand for tourism consumption among residents due to a slowing domestic economy; Third, drastic changes in the markets both at home and abroad are likely to aggravate the difficulties of the enterprises in travelling business. However, there are also a good many advantages and chances for the development of China's tourism industry. Firstly, the fundamentals of China's economic and social development remain unchanged, and the impetus for the development of tourism industry is still very strong. Secondly, the solid footing established by the 30 years of reform and opening up will give a huge boost to the tourism industry. Thirdly, the state macro policies are quite favorable to the development of tourism industry, thus China's tourism industry has a sound circumstance for continued growth. Fourthly, demand for domestic tourism is keeping on increasing stably, which will effectively reverse the downward trend of inbound tourists. Finally, there is still great potential for the development of China's inbound tourism. He required the tourism industry to be apt at capturing any possible opportunities amid the crisis, turning the table in favor and grasping correctly the market changes so as to cope with actively the difficulties and promote the development of the tourism industry. The tourism industry shall be fully aware of the significance of improving confidence and ensuring economic growth, the necessity of expanding domestic demand and taking overall consideration of development of the three markets and the urgency of seizing the opportunity of adjustments and realizing restructuring and upgrading of the tourism industry so as to keep a sound momentum of the tourism industry.

Shao Qiwei put emphasis on the arrangement and deployment of the main missions in 2009. He outlined the general requirements for the nation's tourism work in 2009: Following the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents and thoroughly applying the Scientific Outlook on Development, the tourism industry shall carry out the spirits of the 17th CPC National Congress, the third plenary meeting of the 17th CPC National Congress and the central economic work conference, continue to emancipate the mind, persist in reform and open wider to the outside world. Through such activities as taking efforts to improve confidence in market, fostering the hot spots in consumption, improving service quality and changing the development modes, the tourism industry shall promote the development of domestic tourism, develop the inbound tourism actively and the outbound tourism orderly to keep the steady and rapid development of the tourism industry. The anticipated targets in the development of tourism industry for the year of 2009 are as follows: the number of tourists in domestic tourism will reach 1.85 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9%; the revenue for domestic tourism will hit RMB950 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9%; the number of inbound tourists will reach 132 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%; the number of inbound tourists staying over will reach 54 million, a year-on-year increase of 2%; the foreign exchange earnings from tourism will hit USD41.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1%; the number of outbound tourists will reach 50 million, a year-on-year increase of 9%; the revenue from tourism will total up to RMB1.23 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 8%; and 500,000 jobs will be created in the year of 2009.

According to the general requirements and anticipated targets, Shao Qiwei required that the tourism industry should lay emphasis on the following missions: (1) make efforts to expand the consumption in domestic tourism and to ensure the smooth and rapid development of the tourism industry by coping with actively the financial crisis; seize all possible favorable factors and try the best to pry the tourist market by starting with hot fields, important regions and key aspects; adapt to the changes to the tourism demand market and exploit vigorously new hotspots in tourist consumption; thoroughly develop new policies for expanding domestic demand so as to offer effective supply in a constant way; take efforts actively to help enterprises overcome difficulties and reinforce the confidence of tour operators; and exploit ceaselessly the inbound tourism market by making overall plans and take all factors into consideration. (2) keep on deepening the reform and opening up and make efforts to propel the transition of development modes in tourism industry to promote the scientific development of the tourism industry; start a new pattern in the tourism development by innovating the mechanism of planning and coordination in tourism industry; promote the building of China's tourist destination system by perfecting the evaluation mechanism of the tourist destination; transform the tourism administrative functions to improve the capacity and level in planning and coordinating the development of tourism industry; and strengthen continuously the vitality of the development of tourism industry by further opening to the outside world; (3) cope well with various basis work unremittingly and make efforts to improve the capacity for impelling the scientific development by solving the major problems in the development; strengthen the supervision and control on the tourist market to improve the tourism service quality; improve the popularization level of the tourist market by innovating publicity and promotion modes; strengthen the building of information and security service to improve the public service level in tourism industry; accelerate the building of legal system to provide guidance to the standardization of the tourism development; strengthen the building of talented persons and the education and training work thereof to reinforce the development of tourism industry; and make efforts to build the tourism departments at all levels into the service-oriented organs satisfactory to the people featuring integrity, high efficiency and dealing with concrete matters relating to work by strengthening vigorously self-construction of the tourism departments.

Shao Qiwei said in the end, under the correct leadership by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and with the solidarity and joint efforts of the tourism industry, the tourism industry will definitely defeat any difficulty and challenge in 2009 and all the targets and missions in the development of tourism industry will be realized. The tourism industry will greet the 60th anniversary of new China with outstanding achievements.

(Assembly room for 2009 National Tourism Working Conference)