On August 4, the "First 2018 Ordos City and Xishuangbanna Prefecture Grassland Silk Road & Ancient Tea Horse Road Bilateral Tourism Dialogue" was grandly inaugurated in Ordos. This bilateral tourism dialogue was jointly hosted by the People's Governments of Ordos City and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture under the guidance of the Tourism Development Commission of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Tourism Development Commission of Yunnan Province. It was co-organized by the Ordos Tourism Yinchuan Marketing Center and the Ningxia Tongxin Yuan Cultural Industry Co., Ltd., and served as an international tourism exchange and cooperation event.
Aiming at "creative development of leisure tourism and deepening bilateral tourism cooperation," the event featured a series of activities including the "Bilateral Tourism Theme Dialogue," "Lectures by Tourism Experts," "Xishuangbanna Tourism Promotion Conference and Bilateral Tourism Innovation and Development Cooperation Symposium," and "In-depth Inspection and Experience of Ordos Leisure Tourism Products." These activities fully showcased the rich tourism resources and products of both regions, achieved synergistic development of their tourism industries, enhanced the tourism brands of "Ordos Warms the World" and the "Magical and Beautiful Xishuangbanna," and contributed to the branding, product development, promotion, and targeted marketing of both cities as international tourism destinations. The initiative also supported the establishment of Ordos as an international leisure resort destination and the construction of Xishuangbanna as a world-renowned tourist city.
Speech by Liu Jianxun, Vice Mayor of the Ordos Municipal People's Government
Speech by Lü Yonghe, Vice Governor of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture People's Government
This was an in-depth dialogue to forge the leisure tourism city brands of Ordos and Xishuangbanna. The bilateral tourism dialogue aimed to foster development, innovation, and brand building through cooperation. The event invited 17 internationally and domestically renowned tourism experts, including Wei Xiao’an, to create a high-level, high-standard dialogue platform. It provided new ideas and vitality for the innovative development of all-for-one tourism in both cities, comprehensively enhancing the overall brand image of Ordos and Xishuangbanna as tourism cities. This helped solidify tourism impressions such as "Ordos Warms the World," "Magical and Beautiful Xishuangbanna," and "Winter in Xishuangbanna, Summer in Ordos" in the minds of the public, positioning Ordos and Xishuangbanna as top-tier leisure and resort tourism destinations in China that complement each other from north to south and are renowned worldwide.
Speech by Wei Zhiguo, Deputy Director of the Tourism Development Commission of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
This was a dialogue aimed at innovation and building world-class tourist cities. Ordos has clearly stated its goal of cultivating the tourism industry into a leading sector in the city’s transformation and development. In recent years, Xishuangbanna has been committed to advancing all-for-one tourism development, implementing a "Tourism Strengthens the Prefecture" strategy, and vigorously promoting the orderly, healthy, and sustainable growth of all-for-one tourism. At the conference, top international and domestic tourism experts offered insights and suggestions. With an international perspective and cutting-edge thinking, they guided the future tourism development and cooperation of both cities, effectively accelerating Ordos’ progress toward becoming an internationally renowned tourism destination and speeding up the construction of Xishuangbanna as a world-class tourist city. The dialogue also promoted broader and deeper collaboration between the two cities.
Speech by Zhang Lingguang, Director of the National Leisure Standardization Technical Committee
This was a collaboration between the Grassland Silk Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road. As a key node city on the Grassland Silk Road and the birthplace of the Ancient Tea Horse Road, respectively, Ordos and Xishuangbanna enjoy unique historical and cultural advantages in integrating into the national "Belt and Road" initiative. This bilateral tourism dialogue represented an innovative partnership between the two regions’ tourism industries, in deep implementation of the "Belt and Road" spirit of "peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefit," and in adherence to the principles of "joint discussion, joint construction, and shared benefits." Through harmonious inclusion, market-driven operations, and mutual benefit, the dialogue facilitated policy communication, route connectivity, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds in the tourism industries of both cities—establishing a strategic alliance for sharing opportunities, meeting challenges, and creating prosperity, as well as a new engine for mutual development and connectivity.
This was a dialogue on building China’s next generation of leisure and resort tourism destinations. The bilateral dialogue attracted a strong lineup of experts and scholars, drawing widespread attention from society and the industry. On the afternoon of August 4, three nationally renowned tourism experts—Wei Xiao’an, Lin Feng, and Han Yunfeng—delivered lectures on all-for-one tourism development, building international tourism destinations, and the development of leisure tourism products. They provided valuable opinions and suggestions for the development of leisure tourism and tourism products in Ordos and Xishuangbanna, further advancing the development of Ordos as a leisure resort destination and the creation of Xishuangbanna’s tropical rainforest leisure vacation products.
This was a dialogue on establishing a cooperative alliance between northern and southern famous tourism cities. Ordos and Xishuangbanna are two highly influential tourism destinations in northern and southern China, beloved by visitors for their diverse and distinctive tourism resources over the years. The hosting of the "First 2018 Ordos City and Xishuangbanna Prefecture Grassland Silk Road & Ancient Tea Horse Road Bilateral Tourism Dialogue" deepened the integration of "culture + tourism" and brought the tourism brands of both cities to global prominence. The event not only marked the establishment of a complementary and mutually supportive tourism cooperation alliance between the two sides, injecting new momentum into their tourism economies, but also signaled that future closer tourism collaboration will build a bridge of friendship for cooperation, publicity, visitor exchange, and business support between two renowned tourism cities of the north and south.
In recent years, China’s tourism industry has entered an unprecedented era of transformation, characterized by unprecedented policy guidance, rapidly evolving industry structures, diverse cross-sector integration, and ever-changing consumer markets. This bilateral tourism dialogue not only created a new model for tourism cooperation and development but also paved a sustainable path of win-win collaboration for the nation’s tourism industry. It served as an innovative measure and meaningful attempt to advance the national "Belt and Road" initiative, offering valuable demonstration, promotion, and reference for future cultural and tourism cooperation and exchanges among other cities across the country.