The Mountain Tourism Cooperation Forum was recently held in Madrid, Spain. Led by Fu Yingchun, Vice Chairman and Executive Secretary-General of the International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), the exchange delegation engaged in in-depth discussions with representatives from over 20 renowned Spanish outdoor and sports tourism organizations, associations, and companies, including Olalla Cernuda, Vice President of the Spanish Mountaineering Federation (FEDME); Marc de Bruyn, General Distributor in Spain and Portugal for Rab, Lowe Alpine and Camp; Xu Chuchu, Representative of the Aragon Tourism Office; and Lin Qinye, General Manager of Netherlands Otherside Travel Consultancy Co., Ltd. The forum focused on sharing high-quality mountain tourism resources and building future-oriented business cooperation, reaching positive consensus and gathering strength for the innovation of new driving forces in mountain tourism.
Through interactive exchanges, participants gained a deeper understanding of IMTA's organizational structure, value concepts, development history, and future vision. Fu Yingchun introduced the basic situation of IMTA since its establishment in 2017. He emphasized that the IMTA, initiated by Guizhou, China, is the world's first non-governmental, non-profit international organization focusing on mountain tourism. It aims to guide and influence its members and the industry to participate in the joint construction of a mountain tourism governance system through various channels, actively creating harmonious and inclusive cooperation mechanisms and promoting mutual understanding among people through mountain tourism. Platforms like the "International Mountain Tourism Day", the "IMTA Annual Conference", "Dialogue Among World Famous Mountains", "World Heritage Famous Mountain Summit", and the "Asian Mountain Tourism Promotion Conference" have gradually become representative interactive exchange platforms of IMTA, forming a positive international influence. The recent "International Mountain Tourism Day 2024" Theme Events in Nice, France, focused on "Mutual Understanding among People through Mountain Tourism" and "Mountain Tourism Destinations Responding to Climate Change", aligned with the main theme of contemporary development, resonated widely within the industry, marking a successful practice of promoting cultural and friendly exchange by international organizations. Fu Yingchun also introduced the latest measures of China and Guizhou Province in promoting high-quality cultural and tourism development. These policy measures not only benefit China or Guizhou's cultural and tourism development but also present opportunities for the international industry, including the participants. He hoped to seize favorable opportunities to actively carry out multi-field cooperation. Guizhou is striving to build world-class tourism destinations and will introduce more attractive investment promotion policies to passionately welcome everyone to join hands and make new strides in promoting the joint construction of diverse sectors such as mountain cultural tourism and sports tourism.
Olalla Cernuda, Vice President of FEDME, shared that FEDME has long been dedicated to mountain-related commercial tourism activities such as mountaineering, rock climbing, and hiking, and boasts a large number of members across Europe. As the influence of mountain tourism continues to expand, the exchange and mutual understanding between different civilizations have become important drivers of industry development. Looking ahead, FEDME hopes to have more opportunities to engage in business cooperation with regions and enterprises in China, achieving complement advantages and jointly contributing to improving the quality of mountain tourism.
Wen Weiya, Representative of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and Director of the International Mountain Tourism Development Center, introduced the mountain tourism resources and advantages of Guizhou to the participants. She highlighted that Guizhou boasts unique natural landscapes such as karst caves, lakes, waterfalls, canyons, and sinkholes. The harmonious blend of mountains and waters has nurtured rich cultural heritages. Seventeen indigenous ethnic minorities have left numerous intangible cultural heritages on this land, infusing attractive cultural connotations into Guizhou's mountain tourism. In recent years, Guizhou has focused on promoting the integration and innovation of tourism by leveraging its mountainous resources and advantages. With the continuous improvement and upgrading of Guizhou's infrastructure in transportation, communication, and services, various landscapes converge in Guizhou, creating diverse opportunities and platforms.
Marc de Bruyn, General Distributor in Spain and Portugal for Rab, Lowe Alpine and Camp, Spain's largest outdoor gear brand, expressed that this forum provided an excellent exchange platform for cooperation. The Rab brand has been deeply rooted in the European market for many years. Spain, as an important destination for outdoor mountain tourism in Europe, will benefit from in-depth cooperation with China to further expand the market and enhance product competitiveness through the integration of culture and sports tourism, thereby establishing a development pattern of precise links between supply and demand, and continuous innovation in products and services. He expressed that Guizhou's tourism is captivating, and he hopes to have the opportunity to experience its unique scenery. He believes that Guizhou is extremely well-suited for the development of mountain tourism and that the outdoor sports industry there has vast potential to be tapped into.
Fu Yingchun, on behalf of IMTA, accepted the membership applications from the Aragon Tourism Office and Netherlands Otherside Travel Consultancy Co., Ltd. With the increase in international members, the structure of IMTA will continue to optimize, further expanding opportunities for cooperation.
The exchange delegation led by Fu Yingchun also visited the headquarters of UN Tourism and had fruitful discussions with Sandra Carvao, Director of the Tourism Market Intelligence, Policy, and Competitiveness Department, and others. The talks focused on cooperation in co-hosting events, platform co-construction, research projects, standardization, data sharing, and promotion. Both sides agreed to maintain close consultations on issues of mutual concern and actively implement them.
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Company Name: International Mountain Tourism Alliance
Contact Person: Zhang Yijing
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Address:3rd F, South Building, International Mountain Tourism Alliance Headquarters Building, Longteng Road, Nanming District
City: Guiyang
State: Guizhou 550005
Country: China
Website: http://www.imtaweb.net/
