“Beautiful China, 2015 --- Year of Silk Road Tourism” Launched

On January 8, insiders of the tourism industry and representative tourists at home and abroad gathered at the Daming Palace National Heritage Park in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province to witness the launch of the Beautiful China, 2015 --- Year of Silk Road Tourism campaign. CNTA Vice Chairman Du Jiang and Deputy Governor of Shaanxi Bai Aying addressed the opening ceremony.

Vice Chairman Du pointed out that it’s of special significance for CNTA to designate the year of 2015 as the Year of Silk Road Tourism. The campaign is a major step taken by the tourism industry to implement the “One Belt, One Road” strategy, presents golden opportunities to promote the integrated tourism development along the Silk Road in China, and is a major means to deepen tourism cooperation between countries along the Silk Road and to promote inbound tourism. The tourism industry, open and comprehensive, boasts unique first-mover edges in the “One Belt, One Road” national strategy and should take the initiative to “be the first mover in connecting with other countries.” The ancient Silk Road spanned across Asia and Europe, played an irreplaceable role in bridging eastern and western culture and promoting commercial and trade contacts, and left us world renowned ever-popular tourist routes; now, the strategic vision to construct “One Belt, One Road” presents precious historical opportunities for tourism development in countries and regions along the Silk Road. Tourism conveys peace and friendship and boosts development as the ancient Silk Road did. Let’s join hands, make innovative explorations, provide more diversified products and better services to tourists at home and abroad and contribute more to the new development of the ancient Silk Road.

According to Deputy Governor Bai, Shaanxi was a major cradle of the Chinese people and the Chinese civilization and the starting point of the ancient Silk Road. Beautiful China is an international tourism brand of China built by CNTA. Shaanxi will take this opportunity to work with sister provinces/regions/municipalities, quicken the pace of “going global”, strengthen cultural and tourism communication and cooperation with other countries and regions along the Silk Road, enhance the international influence of the brand of Silk Road tourism and culture and add to the charm of Beautiful China.

It’s said that the slogan of the campaign is “Explore Beautiful China along the Silk Road” and “New Silk Road, New Travel Experience.” The launch ceremony presented the cultural, historical and tourist resources of “One Belt, One Road” under the themes of “Light of Silk Road”, “Dream of Silk Road” and “Journey of Silk Road”. The opening ceremony attracted nearly 400 guests including representatives from consulates-general of the Republic of Korea and Thailand in Xi’an, from foreign travel agencies in China, from tourism authorities of other provinces/regions/municipalities and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, from tourist enterprises and from press and other walks of society. (Written by Xu Wanjia and photo by Zhao Lin)