2015 China Tourism Industry Promotion Symposium held in Beijing
BEIJING, May 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On the morning of May 15, the National Tourism Administration invited major domestic financial institutions, large tourism groups, listed tourism companies, and representatives from central government departments, provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities, separately listed cities, sub-provincial cities, and key tourist cities to attend the China Tourism Industry Promotion Symposium held in Beijing.Chen Miaolin, Chairman of Yuan Ye Tourism GroupAs a representative of large tourism groups and listed tourism companies, he attended the meeting and, along with nine other leading private tourism entrepreneurs, was awarded the "China Tourism Industry Outstanding Contribution Award" — the Flying Horse Award — for the first time by the National Tourism Administration.
Chairman Chen Miaolin receives the China Tourism Industry Outstanding Contribution Award from the National Tourism Administration
At the meeting, Li Jinzao, Director of the National Tourism Administration, delivered a keynote report titled "Sharing Opportunities, Creating the Future — Jointly Writing a New Chapter in the Development of China's Tourism Industry." He said that despite the economic development entering a new normal and downward pressure on economic growth increasing, the tourism industry has continued to grow against the trend with commendable results. The National Tourism Administration will promote capital to play a strong role in the development of the tourism industry, making it a new engine for China's economic growth in the new normal. At the meeting, the National Tourism Administration signed strategic cooperation agreements to support the development of China's tourism industry with six financial institutions: the China Development Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Ping An Bank, and Industrial Bank. The six financial institutions pledged to provide a credit line of 1.6 trillion yuan for the tourism industry over the next five years. At the same time, Li Jinzao also revealed that the National Tourism Administration will work with the Ministry of Finance and financial institutions, as well as major tourism enterprises, to jointly establish a China Tourism Industry Promotion Fund. It will also form a China Tourism Investors Alliance with influential tourism investors to inject strong capital into the development of the tourism industry.
To actively encourage outstanding private entrepreneurs and a large amount of private capital to invest in the development of China's tourism industry, and to create a favorable environment and atmosphere for private capital investment in China's tourism industry, the National Tourism Administration awarded the "China Tourism Industry Outstanding Contribution Award" — the Flying Horse Award — to private entrepreneurs who have invested over 10 billion yuan in China's tourism industry and made significant contributions to its development. Chairman Chen Miaolin, along with Wang Zhenghua, Chairman of Spring Airlines Group, James Liang, Chairman of the Board of Ctrip, and the Chairman of Songcheng Company, among 10 leading private tourism entrepreneurs, received this honor.
Chairman Chen Miaolin said that it is the first time in 15 years that the National Tourism Administration has restarted the award for outstanding figures in the tourism industry, which shows that the government attaches great importance to the development of tourism and is taking various measures to promote tourism investment. In 2001, he was awarded one of China's tourism industry's top ten "Influential Figures" by the National Tourism Administration. Winning the "Flying Horse Award" today is not only recognition of his personal achievements in dedicating to the tourism industry over the years, but also an accolade for the Yuan Ye Group’s contributions to advancing China’s tourism industry. Currently, Yuan Ye manages and has contracts for over 170 hotels, with nearly 50,000 rooms and a total investment of over 14 billion yuan. In addition, Yuan Ye ranks among the top in terms of brand, reputation, and influence in China’s tourism industry. The Yuan Ye Hotel Group is the second-largest hotel group in China (in terms of scale) and the largest privately-owned high-star hotel chain in China. Furthermore, according to the global hotel industry rankings by the authoritative international hospitality magazine HOTELS, the Yuan Ye Hotel Group ranks 32nd among the world’s top 50 hotel groups.
Regarding future investment directions, Chairman Chen Miaolin pointed out that Yuan Ye will shift from primarily investing in five-star hotels to tourism-focused investments, such as tourism real estate and tourism complexes. According to changes in market demand, Yuan Ye will not build five-star business hotels on its own in the near future, but will instead focus its investments on brands that meet the needs of mass vacations and family tourism, such as Senbo Resorts, rural resort hotels, cultural theme hotels, and RV hotels. Chairman Chen said that through his observations of the European and American hotel industries, he found that the variety of leisure and vacation hotels in China is not yet rich enough, mainly clustering at the high-end and low-end budget hotel levels, with very few mid-range tourism resort hotels. However, with China's economic development and the growth of the middle-income group, the market demand for mid-range resort hotels will greatly increase. Therefore, such hotels have become a focus of Yuan Ye’s future investment and development.
Tourism industry investments have long return periods. For example, the return period for hotels can be as long as 15–25 years. Therefore, Chairman Chen Miaolin expressed hope that the government will provide more policy support and assistance, especially regarding tourism land use, hoping that related policies can be further relaxed to reduce corporate investment costs and facilitate larger-scale tourism complex developments. Chairman Chen also pointed out that unlike high-star business hotels, building more tourism resort hotels in a city or region will not significantly impact the revenue of previously built hotels. On the contrary, a group of high-quality resort hotels can create a cluster effect, attracting more tourists to the area for leisure and vacation, thereby promoting the development of the entire region’s tourism industry.
The tourism service industry is an important part of the government’s industrial transformation and upgrading. Accelerating the development of the tourism service industry is of great significance to local economies. Therefore, Chairman Chen expressed full confidence in the future prospects of Yuan Ye in the tourism industry. He said that by attending the China Tourism Industry Promotion Symposium, he saw the National Tourism Administration’s determination to promote tourism investment, as well as concrete measures such as the signing of strategic cooperation agreements between the administration and major financial institutions. Winning the "Flying Horse Award" is both recognition and motivation for him. He will join the 20,000 members of Yuan Ye in seizing the great opportunity for tourism development, actively exploring and transforming, increasing investments in tourism sectors that meet market demand, and making due contributions to the healthy and rapid development of China’s tourism industry.