Professional experts from China and Japan met at the online seminar to discuss the development of educational tourism in both countries

CHENGDU,China,Dec. 20,2022 -- A news report by GoChengdu:

The 2022 China-Japan Youth Educational Tourism Seminar was successfully held in Chengduon December 16. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China,this activity is jointly sponsored by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism,the Department of Culture and Tourism of Sichuan Province,and the Chengdu Municipal People's Government,and organized by the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture,Broadcast-TVand Tourism.

Live pictures of the event

Experts from China and Japancarried out a discussion online

Present at the seminar were specialists and guests from both sides including Itaru Shimura,president of the Japan Travel Association,Yu Yougen,deputy secretary-general of China Education International Exchange Association,Takeuchi,president of Japan Educational TourismAssociation,Shintaro Taguchi,chief representative of Beijing Representative Office of Japan National Tourism Administration,Guo Meixia,director of the Publicity and Education Department of the Palace Museum,Yoshinori Ochiof,professor ofthe School of Tourism of Toyo University in Japan as well asother expertsand scholars studying in the field of educational tourismbetween China and Japan. They had a heateddiscussionand exchanged views on the current situation and development direction of educational tourismfor Chinese and Japanese teenagers.

China has an old sayingof "it is better to travel ten thousand miles than to read ten thousand books." In 2013,the General Office of the State Council issued the Outline of National Tourism and Leisure (2013-2020),which first proposed "educational tourism",in which the idea of "gradually promoting studytoursfor elementaryand secondary school students"was proposed. Thedevelopment of educational tourismfor Chinese and Japanese teenagers is a systematic and long-term program. Experts,leaders and guests at the conferenceagreed that both sides should actively give full play to the urban resources and advantages of the "CultureCityof East Asia",explore and design representative China-Japan,China-Japan-South Korea study tour routes and products,and promote multilateral exchanges and cooperation.

It is worth mentioning that Shintaro Taguchi revealed at the conferencethat the Chengdu Officeof Japan National Tourist Organization was officially approved by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China to open in the near future,which is also the fourth agencyof this organization in China.

Jointly open up a new path for Chinese-Japaneseyouth exchanges

Chengdu,the first "City of Gastronomy"in Asia awarded by UNESCO,was rated as one of the "World's Best Tourist Destinations"by National Geographic of the United States.In addition to that,it also boasts the titles of "China's Best Tourist City","National Cultural Export Base","the first batch of national cultural and tourism consumption demonstration cities",etc. Recently,Chengdu has also been approved as a park city demonstration area to implement the new development philosophy,and elected as China's "2023 Cultural City of East Asia".

Next,startingfrom the China-JapanYouth Educational TourismSeminar,Chengdu will work hand in hand with experts fromcultural and tourismcircles of the two countries to focus on building a world-famous cultural cityas well as the"Cultural Cityof East Asia",and jointly carry out broader,deeper and more pragmatic exchanges and cooperationbetween two sides.

"We hope to jointly open up apathfor Chinese and Japanese youth to knowbetter abouteach other,and promote a more stable and far-reaching relation between China and Japan."said an officerin charge of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture,Broadcast-TV,Television and Tourism. He also claimedthat he sincerely hoped more Chinese and Japanese young students could come to Chengdu for sightseeingand leisure travel. They can stroll down the streets of Chengdu,seeing the beautiful sights of thispark cityunder the snow mountainand feeling the happiness of Chengdu people.