The 9th GTI NEA Tourism Forum under the theme “New tourism trends and coping strategies of the GTI Member Countries in response to COVID-19 pandemic” was held on 12 November 2020, co-organized by the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, People’s Government of Hunchun City and Northeast Tourism Promotion Center of Jilin Province and the GTI Secretariat.

The opening speeches were delivered by Mr. Mr. TIAN Yunpeng, Deputy Inspector of Department of Culture and Tourism of Jilin Province, followed by Mr. Andrey Smorodin, Director of the GTI Secretariat and Mr. ZHANG Jifeng, Deputy secretary of Hunchun municipal Party committee and mayor of Hunchun municipal government.

During the opening remarks the Director of GTI Secretariat highlighted that the Forum’s role is especially essential nowadays when the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all economic sectors and had a particularly severe impact for the travel and tourism sector. In particular, he stated that such multilateral cooperation platforms as the GTI NEA Tourism Forum should be instrumental for the GTI member countries to explore new opportunities in regional tourism cooperation and embrace the challenges. Mr. Smorodin also highlighted the importance of exchanges and sharing of best practices with other international and intergovernmental organizations, such as UN World Tourism Organizations (UNWTO) and Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office, which should contribute to exploring opportunities to stimulate the recovery of the tourism sector in the region.

Furthermore, the representatives from the GTI member countries, international organizations and academia joined in discussions on the theme of the Forum.

Ms. Vanessa Satur, Manager of the Technical Cooperation and Silk Road shared UNWTO’s overview of the COVID impact on global tourism and the GTI region and offered their support in the form of Technical Assistance Recovery Package.

Mr. Jens Thraenhart presented best practices from the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) in supporting tourism stakeholders through their social collaborative online portal Mekong Moments. Based on the experience from the GMS he suggested that GTI member countries may as well consider the development of a regional web platform which could promote the GTI region as a single tourism destination.

Insights from the international organizations were followed by presentations by the GTI member countries’ delegations.

Two representatives from China’s academia shared their ideas on the issue. Mr. LI Beiwei, Dean of School of Economic Management, Jilin University, and Mr. XU Zhejun, Vice President of School of Economics and Management, Yanbian University introduced the measures taken by Jilin Provincial Government to prevent and control COVID-19 as well as their perspectives and recommendations on how to adapt to the challenges and strengthen cooperation to steadily resume international tourism in the GTI region.

Delegate from Mongolia Ms. CHOIBALSAN Buyanbadrakh, Director of Mongolian Guide Tour LLC, introduced the current situation of border tourism and plans for development of tourism in Dornod Province of Mongolia. One of the key projects which was developed by Dornod Province recently is the “Wall Road of Chingis of Three Countries”. In this regard the delegation of Mongolia invited tourism stakeholders from China and Russian Federation for further discussions and their active participation in this project.

External Relations Coordinator of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea Ms. Deborah Dongeun PARK presented the latest tourism trends from Republic of Korea. To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on its tourism industry, Republic of Korea launched such initiatives as 2020 Special Domestic Travel Week (July 2020) to safely increase domestic tourism.

On the Russian side, Primorsky Territory Agency for Tourism’s Head of Tourism Development Division Ms. Nadezhda Udovenko introduced the supportive measures provided by the state authorities to the tourism business, ongoing initiatives to promote the Primorsky Territory as a tourism destination as well as a proposal for strengthening tourism cooperation in the GTI region, including organization of an online expo.

Closing remarks were delivered by Cheng Songjin, Deputy Mayor of People’s Government of Hunchun City

The Forum provided an update on the latest developments of the tourism sector in the GTI region, experience from other regions as well as global trends in adapting to the current challenges. The discussions held may help the participating countries to elaborate on their strategic plans for cooperation to stimulate the revitalization and sustainability of the tourism sector in NEA. The proposals presented during the Forum will later be submitted to the GTI Tourism Board for their consideration.