Ice and Snow Tour Brings You to China

China’s tourism industry is experiencing rapid and sustained growth, which is featured by a transition from scenic-spot-based tourism to holistic destination development tourism. The age of tourism for all is thriving. China is not just the world’s largest source of outbound tourists and largest domestic tourism market, but also a popular destination for tourists from around the world. Last year, the inbound arrivals to China reached 138 million, including 28.15 million foreign arrivals, up by 8.3% over 2015. This number is expected to reach 143 million this year. The Belt and Road regions such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia have occupied a key position in China’s tourism market, both inbound and outbound.

Tourism is at the top of the five happiness industries identified by the Chinese government. The 13^th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Industry, which is elevated to the level of a state plan, is under smooth implementation. With the momentum generated by the Belt and Road initiative, China’s tourism industry is opening at a faster pace, and the quality of tourism services and products is constantly improving. China has rich ice and snow tourism resources, which are mainly concentrated in the northern region, and with different focuses, from sight-seeing, sports and leisure to festive celebration and cultural performance. The number of participants and employees in the industry is rapidly expanding. In 2022, China will host the 24^th Winter Olympics in Beijing and Zhangjiakou City of Hebei Province, which brings new opportunities for the development of ice and snow tourism in China. On 16 March 2017, the China-ASEAN Year of Tourism Cooperation was inaugurated in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, and the relevant exchange and celebration activities will be rolled out throughout the year. All this will inject new and strong impetus for upgrading China - ASEAN relations in the new era.

At the end of 2015, with the guidance and support of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the China Ice and Snow Tourism Promotion Alliance was established under the initiative of the Tourism Administration of Heilongjiang Province. The member regions of this Alliance, including Beijing, Hebei, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, are using this mechanism to share resources, exchange information, explore market opportunities and encourage mutual tourist visits, and working together to grow China’s ice and snow tourism industry and promote China’s ice and now tourism culture to the world.

To strengthen China’s tourism exchange and cooperation with the Middle East and Southeast Asia and promote China’s ice and snow tourism resources and products to the Belt and Road countries, CNTA is organizing a joint promotion tour of Beautiful China for tourism authorities and businesses from the member regions of the Ice and Snow Tourism Promotion Alliance and Shanghai to the UAE, Malaysia and Singapore from 15-23 May. All the delegates will discuss cooperation with their counterparts from the local tourism industries. The Chinese tourism promotion delegation is being led by Mr. Zhang Lizhong of Department of Tourism Promotion and International Cooperation, CNTA.

Direct flight services are currently available between Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Urumqi, Harbin and Chengdu, which makes travel very convenient for tourists. China is also working with the UAE, Malaysia, Singapore and the other Belt and Road countries to improve the convenience of policy arrangements in visa, customs clearance, logistics and shopping refund, which will greatly benefit tourists from both sides. The implementation of the Belt and Road initiative will take tourism exchange and cooperation between China and other countries along the route to a new level.