From July 3rd to July 5th, the "WTA China-EU Tourism Dialogue" was held in Budapest, Hungary. The event was co-hosted by the World Tourism Alliance, the European Tourism Commission and the Hungarian National Tourism Board, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, the Ministry of National Economy of Hungary and the Hungarian Ministry of European Union Affairs as the supporting units.
With the theme of "Connecting China and Europe for a Better Future", the "WTA China-EU Tourism Dialogue" will feature keynote speeches, roundtable dialogues and results releases, inviting guests from Chinese and European tourism authorities, relevant international organizations, tourism cities, key tourism and tourism-related enterprises, OTA platforms and research institutions to share their views and discuss the sustainable development path and practice of China-EU tourism industry.
He Yong, President of Huacheng International Travel Service Group, was invited to attend the event as a representative of the Chinese tourism industry. In the roundtable dialogue session on July 4, He Yong exchanged views with the guests on the topic of "The Role of Art, Culture and New Media Communication in Marketing".
He Yong believes that "compared with sightseeing tourism and leisure tourism, cultural tourism is a higher level of spiritual demand. As a leading tourism operator in China, the mission of Huacheng International Travel Service Group is to provide richer products and better services to meet the increasingly diverse and high-quality cultural tourism needs of Chinese tourists."
"Over the years, Huacheng International Travel Group has been deeply exploring European tours. Europe has a rich cultural heritage and tourism resources, and for Chinese tourists, if they come to Europe for sightseeing, they will lose a lot of fun. More than 90% of Huacheng's European product lines are injected with cultural elements. He Yong said.
"Huacheng is the first company in China to have a dedicated 'product manager' position among all travel companies in China. In 2019, we organized more than 300,000 group tours to Europe, in which guests experienced product routes with prominent cultural themes. For different European countries, Huacheng International Travel Group explores the characteristics of its destinations and creates diversified culture-oriented products with corresponding themes, such as the cultural heritage of Italy, the Habsburg dynasty of Eastern Europe, the music of Vienna, the famous schools of the United Kingdom, and the cuisine of southern Europe. ”
"And we must pass on to the guests in advance when they make a reservation, what will be included in the product they are about to travel and what they can experience, not just see one city after another, one church after another."
Talking about the impact of new technologies such as AI on cultural tourism, He Yong said, "Cross-border tourism is actually very informative, and new technologies are very helpful for cultural communication, especially for our tourism industry." New technologies can make visitors feel immersed, and they can receive a lot of information from before departure to during the trip. For example, when visiting a small town in Budapest, guests can not only walk around the town, but also learn about the cultural heritage and the history behind it with the help of new technology. ”
During their stay in Budapest, Mr. He and his entourage also inspected popular Hungarian attractions and hotel groups, and discussed future possibilities with local Hungarian partners. The teams of the Austrian branch and the UK branch of Huacheng International Travel Service Group have been stationed in Europe for a long time, integrating the European tour supply chain, improving service capabilities and quality, and digging deep into in-depth and high-quality tourism elements such as destination fleets, tour guides, hotels, restaurants, scenic spots and local entertainment, so as to provide safe, convenient and experience-rich European tour products for Chinese tourists and overseas Chinese tourists.