Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization

Deputy Secretary -Gerneral of the United Nations,

 

All delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

At this October time when beijing is offering us its charming autumn scenery in a most fresh air and clear weather, the 15th General assembly session of the world tourism organization is officially opened here. On behalf of the Chinese government, I would like to extend our sincere welcome to all the guests here and to express our warm congratulations on the convening of this session.

 

Tourism represents a kind of popular and plesant activity that combines sightseeing, recreation and outdoor exercises, and it has been developing all along with the progress of the times. Since the middle of the 20th century, modern toursim has been growing at a fast pace around the world . The number of the tourists has ever been on the rise, and the scale of the tourism industy has been on  constant expansion, and the position of the tourism in the economy has been obviously raised. Tourism serves gradually as an important bridge of cultural exchange, friendship and further exchanges and exerts more and more extensive influence on the human life and social progress among various countries.

 

From ancient time till now,   tourism has demonstrated the happy wish of the people for more knowledge , varied experiences and good health. In ancient times,         ancient chinese thinkers raised the idea of " appreciating the  landscape through sightseeing, ancient people also proposed to travel ten thousand li and read ten thousand books, which shows they found pleasure in enriching themselves mentallly and phisically through travelling over famous mountaines and rivers. After the founding of  New china, especailly since the opening up to the outside world and the reform, the chinese government has given profound attention to toursim work, which has been undergoing steady and fast growth as a newly emerging dynamic and potentially strong industry.

 

Presently, China is now a big tourism country . it ranks among the top destinations in the world in terms of both tourist arrivals and foreign currency receipts, and its outbound tourists are also increasing rapidly. In the first half of this year,  Although China was affected by sudden outbreak of Sars,yet we spent all our efforts in preventing and controllling SARS, while continuing with our economic construction. By implementing strong supportive policy measures, the toursim industry, which suffered greatly for a time,has been on fast recovery adn development.

 

China, as a big oriental country, not only boasts a long history of civilization, but also demonstrates a great deal of modern vitality. It is endowed with unique,  rich, varied tourism resources such as the picturesque natual scenery, profound history and extensive culture and differnt folk customs of 56 nationalities. Thanks to the further push of the opening up and the reform, it's an important strategic period for china to develop domestic and international tourism.

 

we are ready to develop extensive cooperation with other countries and contribute to global toursim growth. The world tourism organization has made active and effective efforts to the promotion of the tourism prosperity and development . The world toursim organization will soon become specialized agency of the United Nations. We would like to offer our sincere congratulations. We believe this Wto gerneal assembly session will give a major push to the futher toursim prosperity and devleopment in the world.

 

Finally , I wish a full success of the 15th G S s of the world toursim organization.

 

thankyou.