Tourism ministers from the countries along the Belt and Road routes including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Cambodia have recently discussed ways to deepen cooperation and other issues on the Tourism Ministers' Meeting of Countries along the Belt and Road in Chengdu, according to the People's Daily.
In recent years, China has taken an active part in the development and promotion of global tourism. The Belt and Road has broadened the tourism market, given more prominence to the value of tourism resources, further enhanced tourism convenience, made governments of all nations attach greater importance to tourism development and created favorable international tourism cooperation environment, said Li Jinzao, Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration.
He added that tourism authorities of all nations should seize the opportunity to deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road framework and share the results of tourism development.
The tourism ministers spoke highly of the Belt and Road Initiative. Tourism in many countries and regions have benefited from the initiative. The concept of discussion, co-construction and sharing have boosted tourism enterprises' competitiveness, deepened international tourism cooperation, expanded the space of tourism development, further deepened the tourism cooperation among the countries along the Belt and Road, and opened a new pattern for the Belt and Road tourism.
The Belt and Road Initiative can promote tourism development worldwide, said Safonov Oleg Petrovich, head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation.
He said that as neighbors linked by railways and with many different tourism cooperation projects, China and Russia can preferentially develop railway tourism.
The Belt and Road Initiative has brought a lot of development opportunities to Kazakhstan's tourism, said Askar Batalov, Deputy Minister of Culture and Sport of Kazakhstan, expecting that Kazakhstan will share development opportunities with China and other countries.
Manuel Butler, Director General of Turespaña, said he is willing to push for and glad to see the early accession of more Spanish tourism enterprises and institutions to the World Tourism Alliance. China is well known in Spain. Spain has paid close attention to the Chinese tourism market in recent years and there is huge potential for China-Spain tourism cooperation. The Spanish government has a strong desire to deepen tourism cooperation with the Chinese government.