The 12th GTI Tourism Board Meeting was held in Ulaanbaatar on 21st June 2019, back-to-back with the Seminar on Regional Tourism Brand Development for the GTI Region organized jointly with United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on 20th June.
12th GTI Tourism Board meeting
Welcome remarks were delivered by Ms. Bayasgalan Saranjav, Director General, Tourism Policy Coordination Department, Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Mongolia and Mr. Tuguldur Baajiikhuu, Director of the GTI Secretariat. Ms. Bayasgalan Saranjav introduces the main policy and program documents in Mongolia’s tourism sector and major targets and directions of work, such as: achieve one million tourists visiting Mongolia annually by 2020, improving services and infrastructure, facilitation of visa procedures, reduction of environmental footprints and development of a marketing approach. She also highlighted the importance of the creation and launch of the digital tourism promotion platform Mongolia.travel and suggested other member countries to further elaborate on the establishment of a regional platform for promotion of tourism in the GTI region. Mr. Tuguldur Bajjiikhuu in his opening remarks stated the importance of further development and promotion of multi-destination tourism in GTR which has been one of the top priorities of cooperation under the GTI Tourism Board since its establishment in 2007. He also stated that development of regional tourism brand for the region was recognized as important direction of work and in this context initial discussions on the topic have already been held. Mr. B. Tuguldur also briefed on the previous activities which contributed to the initiative of the tourism brand development such as training for GTI tourism stakeholders on marketing and promotion of tourism destinations (4 August, Hunchun) and participation in travel expos (Pacific International Tourism Expo-2018, Ulaanbaatar Travel Expo-2019) in the form of a joint exposition of GTI member countries under the GTI logo.
After the opening session, GTI Secretariat reported on the progress in GTI’s tourism sector since the last GTI Tourism Board meeting, and each member country’s’ delegation informed about national progress in tourism sector and about the main achievements and strategic adjectives in tourism cooperation with the other GTI member countries.
During the session on Projects Discussion, the UNWTO presented 4 project proposals for GTI member countries, namely: Regional Tourism Brand Development, Voluntary Labeling Scheme, Tourism Statistics, and Capacity Building for Local Governments. Members of the GTI Tourism Board exchanged preliminary opinions about the proposals and agreed to further study on them. Later, during the same session, the delegation of China informed the participants about the current stage of implementation of the research project on Promoting International Tourism and Multi-destination Tourism in GTR, which is to be published and presented to the GTI Consultative Commission meeting on 22 August 2019.
Furthermore, a representative of Chameleon Strategies, the developer of Mongolia.travel platform presented their proposal for establishment of a regional platform. This proposal should also be formalized, according to GTI’s format, and circulated among the Tourism Board members to obtain their comments.
Before the closure of the meeting, the Board Members discussed and agreed on the work plan for 2019-2020. The chairmanship in the Board was taken over by China.
The 13th Tourism Board Meeting will be held in China in 2020.
The Seminar on Regional Tourism Brand Development for the GTI Region
The Seminar was a follow-up step to the initial event on the theme of regional tourism brand development held on May 24 in Ulaanbaatar within the framework of Ulaanbaatar Travel Expo-2019.
The Seminar started by introduction to the International Tourism Trends and the Importance of Developing Regional Tourism Brands, made by the UNWTO’s representative, Manager of Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Ms. Vanessa Satur, thus setting the scene for further discussions by the participants. Later, each country’s delegation delivered presentations where they focused on their own particular brand. After the countries’ presentations, during the Open Discussions Session, moderated by UNWTO, the participants were divided into groups in order to share views and elaborate on the issue of defining a common vision for regional tourism branding for the GTI Region. The participants also discussed the Action Plan for the Development of the GTI Regional Tourism Brand, proposed by UNWTO for the GTI member countries.
Also, a separate session was devoted to the initiative of development of a “Web-based Tourism Promotion Platform for the GTI\NEA Region”, which would be instrumental in achieving the goal of establishment and promotion of the GTR brand as a unified international tourism destination.
As the result of discussions held during the Seminar, the participants agreed on following the path of development of regional tourism brand for the GTI region which would promote the GTI Region and enhance an image of the region as an international tourism destination.