Beijing Tourism Development Committee is officially established on April 8th

(China.com.cn): On the morning of April 8th, 2011, the unveiling ceremony of Beijing Tourism Development Committee was launched in front of Beijing Tourism Tower. Shao Qiwei, Chairman of CNTA, Lv Xiwen, Head of the Organization Department of Beijing CPC Standing Committee, Ding Xiangyang, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Municipality and An Gang, Vice Secretary-general of Beijing Municipality and other leaders were present in the ceremony and unveiled jointly for Beijing Tourism Development Committee.

This year, in order to adapt to needs of Beijing’s economic and social development, to better promote the development of Beijing’s tourism industry, the People’s Government of Beijing decided to rename Beijing Tourism Administration into Beijing Tourism Development Committee and listed it as one of the departments of Beijing Municipal Government in accordance with the Reply Concerning the Renaming of Beijing Tourism Administration and the Adjustment of Beijing Tourism as One of the Government Departments by the Office of Central Organization Establishment Committee. The responsibility of Beijing Tourism Development Committee is to arrange and coordinate the development of Beijing’s tourism industry.

On the ceremony, An Gang, Vice Secretary-general of Beijing Municipality announced the Decision on Establishing Beijing Tourism Development Committee by the People’s Government of Beijing, and introduced all the staff and members of Beijing Tourism Development Committee.

Establishing Beijing Tourism Development Committee is one important measure of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and Government to implement the strategic plan of accelerating the transformation of economic development pattern by the State Council. This move marks that Beijing’s tourism industry enters into a brand-new development stage. Beijing Tourism Development Committee will give full play to the function of arrangement and coordination; better promote the leaping development of Beijing’s tourism industry, offering regulation security and system support for Beijing’s tourism to be an important pillar industry and more satisfying service industry for the people. After the establishment, Beijing Tourism Development Committee will gradually advance and realize the transformation of the working mechanism, focusing on the four key fields of work in industry promotion, resources planning, development coordination and service supervision.

Ding Xiangyang, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Municipality, noted on the ceremony that the establishment of Beijing Tourism Development Committee is a specific measure of Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and Government to implement the scientific outlook on development, and to implement the Opinions of the State Council on Speeding up the Development of the Tourism Industry, and also an important step for transforming the economic development patterns, speeding up the strategic planning of the tourism industry,  to realize reform and innovations and build Beijing into a world city.

Shao Qiwei, Chairman of CNTA, remarked in his speech that Beijing should take the establishment of Beijing Tourism Development Committee as a new starting point, give full play to its own advantages, focus on the international standards, and contribute more to the building of modernization of Beijing and the development of the national tourism. China National Tourism Administration will consistently support the reform and development of Beijing’s tourism, and hope Beijing Tourism Development Committee could set a demonstration role for the national tourism industry by obtaining new experience from the planning of Beijing’s tourism resources, the construction of the large platform for promoting Beijing’s tourism development, and the creation of the pillar industries.

Lu Yong, Director of Beijing Tourism Development Committee, said that in 2011, Beijing Tourism Development Committee will take system innovation and mechanism innovation as the engines, further tap the developing vitality and the development potential of the tourism industry, realize “diversification of resources, facilitation of services, and refinement of management and internationalization of markets”. Three work transformations will be realized: The first is the transformation from developing tourism business into expanding tourism industry to adjust the developing concept, way of thinking, management system, working mechanism and service pattern in perspective industry promotion and development. The second is the transformation from the supporting role of the social development into the leading strategic industrial role, to research the developing rules of the industry, integrate the industrial economic factors, explore the growing resources of the industry, cultivate market entities of the industry, and  fulfill the basic role of the market in allocating the resources. The third is the transformation from single-department promoting to multi-department joint coordinating to give full play to the advantages of multiple departments such as gardening, planting, culture, heritage, water, business, planning, land, construction and transportation, functions of the host regions of the tourism resources and the tourism units, and roles of the market entities and the intermediary organizations.

As Beijing’s tourism emerges and develops, the management system of Beijing’s tourism also experiences the process from birth to maturity. In 1978, Beijing CPC Committee decided to establish Beijing Travel Sightseeing Business Management Administration. In 1983, Beijing Travel Sightseeing Business Management Administration was renamed into Beijing Tourism Administration in accordance with the unified requirements of the State Council and approval of Beijing Municipality. In 1986, Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and the Government decided to merge Beijing Tourism Administration and Beijing Hotel General Company to establish Beijing Tourism Business Management Administration. In 2000, the Beijing Municipal Government decided to rename Beijing Tourism Business Management Administration into Beijing Tourism Administration. In 2011, Beijing Tourism Administration again faces a historically new starting point amid the beginning of the 12th Five-Year Period, and Beijing’s tourism industry is going to enter into a rapid and integrated highway.

During the “11th Five-Year” period, Beijing successfully overcome various challenges, obtained huge achievements in remarkable expansion of the overall economic volume of the tourism industry, continuing increase of social function, increasingly rich tourism products and business forms, significant increase of tourism service supporting level and further deepening of inter-region tourism cooperation. Beijing’s tourism has entered into a rapid development highway in the post-Olympic period, becoming a major force for expanding domestic demands, adjusting economic structure, favoring the livelihood of the people, securing economic growth and securing social stability.

During the “12th Five-Year” period, Beijing’s tourism will inspire the potential energy and productivity to create new developing business forms, and intensively promote the accelerating of the transformation of the economic development pattern through system reform against the backdrop of gradually strengthening momentum of industrial integration and increasingly significant influence on urban development of tourism. Efforts should be made to realize the blueprint of the “12th Five-Year Plan”: With aims to be first-class in the world, to cultivate tourism as an important pillar industry for Beijing’s economy and a modern service industry satisfying to the people, to realize the “diversification of resources, facilitation of services, refinement of management and internationalization of markets”, to try hard to reach the goals of “1st-class, 10 percent, 10 billion, 100 million, and 200 million” by 2015. That is: to build an internationally first-class tourism city, make the percentage of added-value of tourism industry over 10 percent of Beijing’s GDP, annual inbound tourism revenue exceeding USD10 billion, inbound visits exceeding more than 100 million, and domestic tourists up to 200 million.

As is reported, the overall requirement for Beijing Tourism Development Committee in 2011 is: to intensively implement the series of guiding spirits concerning speeding up the development of Beijing’s tourism by the Central Government Beijing Municipal CPC Committee and the Government, to take the scientific development of tourism as the theme, to take the transformation of the development pattern of the tourism economy as the main route, to take the system and mechanism innovation as guarantee, to take the management technology innovation as the driving force, to take the industrial resource promotion as a support, to focus on realizing the “diversification of resources, facilitation of services, refinement of management and internationalization of markets” of tourism, to enhance the drive of double-wheel of investment and consumption, to further expand the industrial scale and strengthen brand resources, to develop the two markets of urban and rural, to further promote resource integration and optimize the developing environment, to achieve mutual benefits based on inter-region cooperation, to further build a market with high concentration of advantages and shared prosperity, to lay a more favorable foundation for building an internationally first-class tourism city and key pillar industries and to present excellent achievements to welcome the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.