Dear Mr. Chen Jining,
Dear Mr. Polilikashvili,
Dear Mr. Chen Dong,
Dear participants of the Conference,
I cordially welcome you and express my special gratitude to the World Federation of Tourist Cities and the Beijing City Hall for organizing a Conference dedicated to the restoration of world tourism in a hybrid format, taking into account the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the past year and a half, the pandemic has become a real test for the tourism industry not only in the SCO countries, but also around the world, at the same time highlighting the exceptional importance of tourism, as well as the closely related hotel and restaurant business, leisure and hospitality industries for the socio-economic life of our countries.
According to UNWTO, the number of international arrivals worldwide has decreased by 85% in the five months of 2021 compared to the period before the coronavirus pandemic.
Export revenues from tourism decreased by $ 1.3 trillion, which is 11 times higher than the losses from the global economic crisis of 2009.
Between 100 and 120 million jobs in the tourism sector were at risk, most of them in small and medium-sized businesses.
In this regard, the harmonization, coordination and digitalization of measures to reduce the risks of the spread of COVID-19 associated with travel, including certificates of testing, tracking and vaccination, including the use of unified "passports" of health, are an important basis for promoting safe travel and preparing for the restoration of tourism.
Dear participants of the Conference,
At the same time, the pandemic has created additional opportunities associated with the use of modern information and communication technologies.
The provision of "contactless" services, such as virtual tours, "cloud exhibitions", etc., allows you to reduce operating costs, expand the tourist experience and strengthen the ability to provide high-quality service and respond flexibly to emergencies, such as epidemic outbreaks.
It is important that with the help of such innovations it will be possible to create a new and high-quality tourist environment and increase the overall level of development of tourist facilities in our countries.
The secretariat of the SCO Youth Council has created the international tourism platform JoinPRO.
The platform allows people to travel around the world and get new experiences without leaving home, and guides to earn income by sharing their knowledge and hobbies with people from all over the world through live broadcasts.
Despite the pandemic and the existing restrictions, the SCO member States continue to cooperate in the field of tourism through existing mechanisms.
This year, as a result of the meeting of the heads of tourism departments of the SCO member states, organized under the chairmanship of the Republic of Tajikistan, a Joint Action Plan was adopted in the new conditions for the implementation of the Program of Cooperation of the SCO member states in the field of tourism for the period 2022-2023.
In particular, this Plan provides for the promotion of improving the quality of tourist services provided, the development of a security system in the field of tourism in the SCO member states, the introduction of digital technologies in the field of tourism, facilitating the policy in the field of inbound tourism, the development of professional training systems for the hospitality sector in the SCO member states.
At the same time, the heads of delegations noted the importance of promoting the historical and cultural heritage of the SCO member states and developing the tourism potential of their cities and regions.
In this regard, the project "Eight Wonders of the SCO", initiated by the SCO Secretariat, is a series of thematic presentations that reveals the historical and cultural sights of our countries in order to create a single tourist space.
On May 28, 2021, an International Conference on the Development of Tourism in the SCO space in the context of a pandemic was held, organized by the SCO Youth Council Secretariat and the SCO Secretariat with the support of the SCOLAR Network Youth Platform.
At the end of July this year, at the initiative of the Chinese side, the first Seminar on the integration development of culture and Tourism for the SCO member states was also held, the program of which provided, among other things, strategies for the restoration and development of the tourism business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts are working on the initiative of the Uzbek side to introduce within the SCO the practice of declaring one of the cities of the presiding member state as the "Tourist and Cultural Capital of the SCO", the provision of which is planned to be approved at the anniversary summit in Dushanbe on September 16-17 this year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This year, the SCO "family" countries are celebrating the Organization's 20th anniversary.
During this period of time, the SCO has become a large sub-regional international association, uniting almost half of the world's population and covering 60 % of the Eurasian continent.
A distinctive feature of our countries that are members of the "SCO family" is the inexhaustible natural, cultural and historical heritage of the peoples.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has established a close partnership with the World Federation of Tourist Cities and UNWTO.
In order to fully implement the agreements reached within the framework of the concluded documents on cooperation, I propose to consider the possibility of preparing a Program of trilateral cooperation between our organizations for the development of tourism in the context of a pandemic.
I wish all participants of the conference fruitful work
Thank you for your attention.