World Culture and Tourism Forum held in Xi'an

The 2020 World Culture and Tourism Forum kicked off in Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province on Sept 28, with the theme of "cultural tourism recovery, innovative transformation".

The forum, which finishes on Sept 29, is being held under the auspices of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and is being hosted by Xi'an municipal government and major online travel agency Ctrip, attracting more than 500 participants.

The event has been discussing the revitalization and transformation of the cultural tourism industry in the post novel coronavirus epidemic era, as well as inbound tourism, domestic tourism and smart tourism.

Participants have been seeking out new opportunities, situations and formats for the cultural tourism industry.

At the forum, Ctrip released statistics on cultural tourism in Shaanxi and Xi'an. These showed that there was a general tourism recovery in Shaanxi, to which Xi'an had contributed more than 80 percent of total tourism revenue and more than 65 percent of the tourist trips.

Last year, Xi'an increased its support for the cultural tourism industry in terms of policies, funds and talent. Throughout the year, the city received over 300 million tourists, generating total tourism revenue of 314.6 billion yuan ($46.11 billion).

Meanwhile, the Xi'an cultural tourism flagship store went online on Ctrip's platform. In the current year, Ctrip will jointly organize dozens of online promotion activities with Xi'an, to promote the city's strong recovery and innovative transformation and improve the international influence of Xi'an's cultural tourism.

Other activities are also taking place during the event, with a focus on new leisure and holiday industry development, Silk Road cultural tourism cooperation and the industrial transformation and upgrading development opportunities in the context of a broader recovery in cultural tourism.