On June 22th, the 38th World Heritage Conference was held in Doha, Qatar, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
On June 24th, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal City Tourism Promotion Alliance comprising of 18 cities along the Grand Canal was established in Hangzhou. Representatives from China National Tourism Administration, Zhejiang Tourism Bureau and Hangzhou Municipal Government attended the inauguration.
The inauguration was organized by Hangzhou Tourism Commission, & Hangzhou Grand Canal Protection Committee, hosted by Hangzhou Municipal Government, Zhejiang Tourism Bureau, and held under the guidance of the National Tourism Administration.
The 18 Cities that formed the alliance are: Beijing, Tianjin, Cangzhou ( Hebei Province ), Hengshui ( Hebei Province ) , Dezhou ( Shandong Province ), Liaocheng ( Shandong Province ), Jining ( Shandong Province ),Tai’an ( Shandong Province ), Zaozhuang ( Shandong Province ), Suqian( Jiangsu Province ), Huai’an ( Jiangsu Province ), Yangzhou ( Jiangsu Province ), Changzhou ( Jiangsu Province ), Wuxi ( Jiangsu Province ), Suzhou ( Jiangsu Province ), Huzhou, Jiaxing City ( Zhejiang Province ), Hangzhou ( Zhejiang Province ). The Alliance’s Secretariat is located in the Hangzhou Tourism Commission. Around 150 people attended the inauguration, including representatives from tourism bureaus (Commissions), travel agencies and key scenic areas of the above 18 cities, which was held on the banks of the canal.
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, known as the longest canal or artificial river in the world; began construction 2400 years ago. Its distinctive, uniqueness and diversity of culture, environment, ecology, make it long-last of tourism value for the world. The alliance has provided great opportunity for connecting throughout the north and south, integrating natural, cultural and intangible heritages. The 6 provinces and 18 cities along the banks of the canal will become a brand new platform for Chinese tourism and reap the mutual benefits of regional cooperation. They’ll make efforts to create a well-known and attractive international tourism route which will be more significant, to enhance the overall image of the Grand Canal and promote regional economic development.
At the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal City Tourism Promotion Alliance inauguration, the 18 cities debuted together for the first time. The Conference issued a “Hangzhou Consensus”, pointing out that the alliance aims to integrate the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal side cities’ tourism resources, to accelerate cooperation of development for cities in the area of regional tourism, to promote the brand as a united alliance, to discuss the new possibility of tourism coordination methods, to promote tourism exchanges and cooperation between cities, to plan a new world-class tourist route for Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and also to continuously improve the international reputation and competitiveness of Chinese tourism.
This alliance will carry out a regional market project in the next 3-5 years with nine emphases: an album, a tourist route, a strong selection of canal cuisine, a film, quantity of tourism festivals, a special website, a tourist strategy throughout the whole canal, plenty of souvenirs and a spokesperson. We believe that in the near future, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal tourism route will become an important Chinese or even world-class tourism product.
After the ceremony, an expert gave an interpretation based on the Grand Canal world heritage genes while another expert from CITS made a speech about the market prospects of the Grand Canal tours and its route development keynote. Meanwhile, 18 cities held their first tourism resources promotion negotiation, for the purpose of deepening market cooperation. After the inauguration, the delegates toured the tourism resources around the Grand Canal ( Hangzhou section).