By Our Staff Writer
The Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) will return to its founding city Macao, China, to hold its 12th annual meet. To be held from October 15 to 17, the Forum will bring together political and business leaders, academic elites, and representatives from international organisations across five continents.
This year’s meet will have the theme – “Crisis • Resilience • Evolution – Building a Tourism Economy for a Shared Future” – to collectively address defining questions of our era and chart a blueprint for shared progress, according to the organizers.
As a premier flagship event in the global tourism economy sector, the Forum serves as a vital bridge connecting China with the international community to drive cultural tourism alignment, facilitate trade, and promote mutual learning among civilizations.
This year’s meet will closely align with five core pillars, namely resilient governance, technology and innovation, the new traveller, culture and identity, and sustainable growth, deeply integrating with Macao’s development strategies.
The Forum will also explore frontier topics such as global cultural tourism capital deployment, China-Europe and Asia-Pacific connectivity, mountain-dwelling tourism, and investment facilitation.
It will also transcend traditional industry boundaries to explore emerging “Tourism+” business models such as AI empowerment, educational tourism, sports IP, cultural heritage revitalisation, and experiential retail, offering forward looking guidance for global industry transformation.
This year’s meet will feature Spain as the Partner Country to share its mature experiences in destination refined governance, balanced regional development, and sustainable transformation as a model for the global cultural tourism industry.
This edition of the Forum is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, maintaining long-term strategic partnerships with UN Tourism and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
It also works closely with leading international tourism organisations, including the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), European Travel Commission (ETC), World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), World Tourism Alliance (WTA), International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA), and Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation (SIEF).
