Chongqing - The second International Symposium on Hot Spring and climate health tourism was held in Chongqing’s Beibei district on November 28^th, the capital of Hot Springs in the world. The symposium was attended by various experts from China, Japan, Hungary, Poland, and Italy who met and discussed Chongqing as a World-Class hot spring tourism city and hot spring resort.

 

The symposium was directed by the World Federation of Hot Spring and Climate Health, hot spring tourism branch of China Tourism Association, Chongqing culture and tourism development committee, and various other relevant government agencies.

The theme of this year’s Hot Spring symposium is Innovation and Integration of hot spring and climate health care. Promoting the construction of a hot spring valley focused on implementing a strategic plan put forward by the municipal people’s government and relying on the hot spring industry to further develop the city of Chongqing and becoming a world-class hot spring tourism and resort city.

The hot spring symposium invited top experts from China and abroad to share in-depth about the issues regarding facing the five areas of hot spring development: training of hot spring health care professionals, the creation and operation of health care tourism objectives, the rehabilitation of hot spring water, creation of hot springs health services, and how to use evaluation models to guide the development of climate health care products and services.

Ahead of the opening ceremony itself, Chongqing and the WWF planted friendship trees together to mark the beginning of their new cooperation and attention to the climate in the future development of Chongqing’s hot springs tourism industry.

The opening saw welcome speeches given by Mr. He Qing, District Chief of Beibei District People’s Government of Chongqing, Mr. Umberto Solimene, President of FEMTEC, as well as Mr. Zhang Yue, Secretary-General of China Hot Spring Tourism Association, and other notable experts. It also included an award ceremony for short films created about Chongqing’s Hot Springs, an awarding ceremony for commemorative titles of Chongqing Hot Spring Angels and a signing ceremony for strategic cooperation agreements between the Chongqing Culture and Tourism Committee, and the China Hot Spring Association to launch the hot spring season in Chongqing and provide renewed benefits to the people. 

In his speech, Umberto Solimene, Chairman of FEMTEC, who has been studying the hot spring industry in China since 2008, said he has seen how Chongqing and the hot spring industry has developed since his first visit in 1973. Beibei districts hot spring industry is now moving in the direction of health care, integrating Chinese traditional medicine, forest health care, sports healthcare, and putting those areas at the center of their hot spring development. Beibei is committed to building a world-class hot spring health care center. He said that China is rich in hot springs resources and is entering a vast consumer market that Europe cannot match. WWF and the China Hot Spring Tourism Association are working together to promote the integrated development of the eastern and western hot spring industries.

Commenting on the recent development in the hot spring industry, Mr. Zhang Yue said that In recent years, with the deepening of China’s health strategies and supply-side structural reforms, China’s hot spring tourism industry has continued to proliferate. Hot spring tourism, which includes tourism, leisure, vacation, health preservation, and health care, has become a popular choice for people spending their leisure and vacation time.

Beibei district is upgrading high-end hot spring holiday tourism projects such as Bailian, Banyan Tree, Xinjing, and Haiyu, speeding up the construction of Hengda Hot Spring International Health Town, increasing the speed at which they are developing this high-value hot spring tourism destination.