Building bridges for mountain tourism cooperation: Mountain Tourism Cooperation Forum successfully held in Madrid
MADRID, Spain–(Newsfile Corp. – June 5, 2024)–The Mountain Tourism Cooperation Forum was recently held in Madrid, Spain. The exchange delegation, led by Fu Yingchun, Vice President and Secretary General of the International Mountain Tourism Federation (IMTA), held in-depth discussions with representatives from more than 20 well-known outdoor and sports tourism organizations, associations and companies in Spain, including Olaya Cernuda, Vice President of the Spanish Mountaineering Federation (FEDME), Mark de Bruyn, General Agent of Rab, Lowe Alpine and Camp in Spain and Portugal, Xu Chuchen, Representative of the Aragon Tourism Board, and Lin Qinye, General Manager of Otherside Travel Consultancy Co., Ltd., Netherlands. The forum focused on joining forces to share high-quality mountain tourism resources and build future-oriented business cooperation, reach a positive consensus and innovate new driving forces for mountain tourism.
Through two-way exchanges, participants gained a deeper understanding of IMTA’s organizational structure, values, development history and future vision. Fu Yingchun introduced the basic situation of IMTA since its establishment in 2017, and emphasized that IMTA, initiated by Guizhou Province, China, is the world’s first non-governmental, non-profit international organization focusing on mountain tourism. He aims to guide and influence members and the industry to participate in the joint construction of a mountain tourism governance system through various channels, actively build a harmonious and comprehensive cooperation mechanism, and promote people’s mutual understanding through mountain tourism. Platforms such as “International Mountain Tourism Day”, “IMTA Annual Conference”, “World Famous Mountain Dialogue”, “World Heritage Famous Mountain Summit”, and “Asia Mountain Tourism Promotion Conference” have gradually become IMTA’s representative two-way exchange platforms and have a positive impact internationally. The recent theme event of the “2024 International Mountain Tourism Day” in Nice, France, focused on “people’s mutual understanding through mountain tourism” and “mountain tourism destinations responding to climate change”, in line with the main theme of modern development, has received widespread response within the industry and become a successful example of international organizations promoting cultural and friendly exchanges. Fu Yingchun also introduced the latest measures taken by China and Guizhou to promote high-quality cultural tourism development. These policy measures will not only benefit the cultural tourism development of China and Guizhou, but also bring opportunities to the international industry, including participants. He hopes to seize the opportunity to actively carry out multi-sectoral cooperation. Guizhou is striving to build a world-class tourist destination, and warmly welcomes everyone to work together to take new steps forward, introduce more attractive investment promotion policies, and promote the joint construction of various fields such as mountain cultural tourism and sports tourism.
Olara Cernuda, vice president of FEDME, said that FEDME has been committed to mountain-related commercial tourism activities such as mountaineering, rock climbing and hiking for many years, and has a large number of members across Europe. As the influence of mountain tourism expands, exchanges and mutual understanding between different civilizations have become an important driving force for the development of the industry. In the future, FEDME hopes to increase business cooperation opportunities with Chinese regions and enterprises, realize complementary advantages, and jointly contribute to improving the quality of mountain tourism.
Wen Weiya, representative of Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and director of the International Mountain Tourism Development Center, introduced Guizhou’s mountain tourism resources and advantages to participants. He emphasized that Guizhou boasts unique natural landscapes such as karst caves, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and sinkholes, and the harmonious integration of mountains and water has fostered a rich cultural heritage. Seventeen indigenous peoples have left numerous intangible cultural heritages here, imbuing Guizhou’s mountain tourism with fascinating cultural connotations. In recent years, Guizhou has focused on leveraging its mountain resources and advantages and promoting tourism integration and innovation. As Guizhou’s transportation, communication and service infrastructure is continuously improved and upgraded, various landscapes are gathering in Guizhou, creating diverse opportunities and platforms.
Marc de Bruyn, general agent in Spain and Portugal for Rab, Lowe Alpine and Camp, Spain’s largest outdoor equipment brand, said that the forum provided an excellent exchange platform for cooperation. The Rab brand has been deeply rooted in the European market for many years. Spain, an important destination for outdoor mountain tourism in Europe, will benefit from close cooperation with China to further expand its market through the integration of culture and sports tourism, improve product competitiveness, and establish a development pattern of precise connection between demand and supply and continuous innovation of products and services. He said that tourism in Guizhou is attractive and he would like to have the opportunity to experience its unique scenery. He believes that Guizhou province is very suitable for the development of mountain tourism and that the outdoor sports industry there has great potential to be tapped.
On behalf of IMTA, Mr. Fu Yingchun accepted membership applications from the Aragon Tourist Board and the Netherlands Otherside Travel Consultants Co., Ltd. With the increase in international members, IMTA’s structure will continue to be optimized and cooperation opportunities will be further expanded.
The exchange delegation led by Fu Yingchun also visited the United Nations Tourism Headquarters and held fruitful discussions with Sandra Carbao, Director of the Tourism Market Information, Policy and Competitiveness Department, among others. The meeting focused on cooperation in jointly hosting events, jointly building platforms, research projects, standardization, data sharing, promotion and other areas, and the two sides agreed to closely consult and actively implement issues of mutual interest.
Media Contact
Organization name: International Mountain Tourism Federation
Website: http://www.imtaweb.net/
Email: zhangyj@imtaweb.org
Contact: Zhang Yijing
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