The 13th GTI Tourism Board Meeting was held virtually on 21st December 2020 under the chairmanship of the People’s Republic of China in the GTI Tourism Board.

Welcome remarks were delivered by Mr. Zhang Xilong, Deputy Director General, Bureau of Int’l Exchanges and Cooperation, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and Mr. Andrey Smorodin, Director of the GTI Secretariat.

Mr. Zhang Xilong noted that the GTI member countries being close geographically as well as culturally, have rich tourism resources and are important tourism markets for each other. He appreciated the cooperation among the GTI Member Countries under coordination of the GTI Secretariat and stated that China attaches great importance to regional tourism cooperation in NEA. Mr. Zhang also mentioned that with joint efforts the GTI member countries and the Secretariat were able to organize the 9th GTI NEA Tourism Forum on 12 November and GTI Consultative Commission meeting on 16 December 2020. He expressed hope that the potential and opportunity of regional tourism cooperation in Northeast Asia will be transformed into a driving force for further development.

Mr. Andrey Smorodin, Director, GTI Secretariat noted with pleasure that in the face of the pandemic crisis, the GTI Member Countries were showing strong commitment to GTI cooperation which allowed the GTI Secretariat to maintain constant dialogue with the Member Countries and organize the tourism events planned for 2020. Mr. Smorodin also mentioned that the GTI NEA Tourism Forum which was held earlier in November 2020 and gathered representatives from tourism authorities, international organizations and academia, helped to shape potential directions of cooperation and set the stage for further discussions which were expected to be held during the Tourism Board meeting.

After the opening session, GTI Secretariat reported on the progress in GTI’s tourism sector since the 12th GTI Tourism Board meeting, and each member country’s’ delegation informed about national progress in tourism sector and the main achievements and strategic adjectives in tourism cooperation with the other GTI member countries in the post COVID-19 era.

During the session on Projects Discussion, Primorsky Territory Tourism Department presented their project proposal of organization of an online exhibition Asia Tourism Expo in 2021 with participation from the GTI Member Countries and Japan.

Further on, representative from UNWTO, Mr. Suman Billa, Director of Technical Assistance and Silk Road introduced to the GTI Tourism Board the UNWTO’s Tourism Recovery Technical Assistance Package and cooperation proposals to the GTI member countries, namely: Tourism Capacity Building for Local Governments, Elaboration of a Regional Tourism Brand for the NEA/GTI Region, Strengthening and Harmonizing of Tourism Statistics in the NEA/GTI Region, Voluntary Labelling Scheme and Toolkit for the NEA/GTI Region.

Lastly, Mr. Jens Thraenhart, Executive Director of the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office showcased the experience from the Greater Mekong Subregion in supporting tourism business with offering recovery solutions through a social collaborative platform, which may also be transferred and applied for the GTI region.

The GTI Tourism Board members agreed on the relevance of all project proposals and agreed to further consider their possible commitments to their implementation.

Before the closure of the meeting, the Board Members discussed and agreed on the work plan for 2021. The chairmanship in the Board was taken over by the Republic of Korea to host the 14th GTI Tourism Board meeting in 2021.