Initiative on rail-side tourist economic belt adopted in Kunming

An Initiative on Joint Development of an International Cultural and Tourism Economic Belt Along China-Laos Railway was adopted by participants of the seminar on this matter on November 18, during the just-concluded 2023 China International Travel Mart in central Yunnan’s Kunming city.

The seminar was participated in by more than 200 representatives from China, Laos, Thailand and other countries and regions in politics, industries, academics and media, who had a constructive discussion on the development of China-Laos Railway through tourism and the prospect of the high-quality tourism development along the railway.

Since its operation on April 13 this year, the international passenger train of China-Laos Railway has helped about 100,000 tourists make cross-border travels to Laos or China. The role of China-Laos railway as a "golden corridor" for tourism has become increasingly prominent, setting a leading example for inbound and outbound tourism in South and Southeast Asia.

In the initiative, the seminar participants recognized that the international culture and tourism economic belt along the China-Laos Railway will drive the formation of the "Lancang-Mekong Tourism Circle" and the "Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar-Nepal Tourism Circle", creating a pattern of "one belt and two circles connecting two oceans".

The initiative noted that the establishment of the International Tourism Alliance of Silk Road Cities is part of China's eight major steps to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation put forward at the recently concluded Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

As the Asia-Pacific region has become an emerging tourist destination, the tourism development along the China-Laos Railway will contribute to the high-quality tourism in the region, the Belt and Road cooperation and the Asian Community with a shared future, according to the initiative.

Source: Yunnan Tourism Planning Institute; Editing by Wang Shixue

Related: Full text of the Initiative on Joint Development of an International Cultural and Tourism Economic Belt Along China-Laos Railway