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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 20, 2003

WTO general assembly opens session in Beijing

The 15th session of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) General Assembly opened in Beijing Sunday.


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The 15th session of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) General Assembly opened in Beijing Sunday.

Tourism ministers from more than 100 countries and nearly 1,000delegates from around the world are attending the meeting.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the opening ceremony that since the middle of last century, modern tourism had been on the rise around the world.

The number of tourists had kept growing, the scale of tourist industry had continued to expand and the position of tourism in the economy had improved markedly.

Wen said tourism had become an important channel for cultural exchange, enhancing friendship and expanding communications among the people of all countries in the world. Tourism had an increasingly profound influence on life and social progress, he said.

Noting that ancient Chinese philosophers had put forward the idea of tourism, Wen said the Chinese Government placed great importance on the industry. China's tourism sector had grown rapidly and become a rising industry that showed great vigor and potential, he said.

China ranked among top destinations in the world in terms of the number of visitors and the country's foreign exchange income from tourism. The number of Chinese tourists going abroad was growing rapidly, he said.

He said that despite the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in spring, China had adopted prompt and effective measures to help the severely affected industry to recover and expand rapidly.

Wen said China had unique and rich tourist resources such as beautiful natural scenery and a great historical and cultural heritage. China had 56 ethnic groups and 29 global cultural and natural heritage sites and the landscape of urban and rural areas was changing rapidly along with the country's reform, opening and modernization drive, he said. All these factors had created favorable conditions for the development of tourism, he said.

Wen said the first two decades of the 21st century would be crucial to the development of tourism in China, as the country builds a well-off society and accelerates modernization. China would develop tourism into a major industry, protect and develop tourist resources and strive to realize the sustainable development of tourism, the premier said.

He said the Chinese Government welcomed friends from all countries as tourists, and will do its utmost to guarantee the health and security of all tourists.

The Chinese Government would encourage more Chinese to travel abroad. China wanted wide-ranging cooperation with all countries to develop global tourism, Wen said.

Wen also expressed his appreciation to the World Tourism Organization for its efforts to promote the development and prosperity of global tourism over the years. He congratulated the WTO on becoming a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Vice-Premier Wu Yi also attended the opening ceremony.

Before the opening ceremony, Wen met with WTO Secretary-GeneralFrancesco Frangialli and UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, who are here to attend the WTO session.



World tourism gathering in Beijing signifies recovery, development
The opening of the 15th session of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) General Assembly here Sunday signified recovery, development, exchange and prosperity in the tourism industry, a leading WTO official said.

"By the very fact that this meeting is being held here and now, we are demonstrating that, after the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the destinations in the region have continued where they left off, and Asia is once again leading international tourism on the track of growth," said Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Participants agreed that the sluggish economy, the Sept.11 terrorism attacks, the Iraq war and SARS forced world tourism into stagnation and that its recovery needed international cooperation. Frangialli said, "After the tragic events of Sept.11, the world tourism industry has gone through a turbulent period of unprecedented severity. An economic downturn, terrorist acts aimed against tourists, the Iraq crisis, natural disasters, an epidemic outbreak. We have been spared no difficulty. Our organization can be satisfied with the capability it demonstrated in such circumstances. It has helped the industry it is responsible for to withstand the shock."

He said that with 703 million arrivals in 2002, representing an increase of 2.7 percent, and 473 billion dollars in revenue, international tourism had weathered the storm and was ready to resume its onward march.

"The halt of tourism means we cannot enjoy the sunshine and beach during our holiday, as well as the halt of human exchanges, capital flow, information flow. It is very necessary that the world tourism community stand together to voice the same wish for recovery," said Edward Situmorang, senior assistant to Indonesia's tourism minister.

"Tourism can play a significant role in helping people lift themselves out of poverty and build better lives. Tourism has a unique potential to promote economic growth and investment at the local level as well as create more job opportunities, and benefit traditional business such as agriculture and food production, and handicrafts," said Louise Frechette, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations. "We gather in Beijing, showing human beings can defeat natural disasters. When SARS was epidemic around Beijing, quite a lot of people were worried whether the assembly would be held on time here. The city famous for its Great Wall proved to the world, it can build a wall against natural disaster," said Judd Buchanan, special consultant of the Canadian Tourism Commission.


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