On October 1, 2016, the 18th Beijing International Tourism Festival, hosted by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and undertaken by the CTS Mice Service Co., Ltd. (CTS), grandly opened on the Olympic Park Celebration Square. Ms. Cheng Hong, the vice mayor of the Beijing Municipal Government, Mr. Du Jiang, the vice chief of the China National Tourism Administration, Mr. Song Yu, the director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Mr. Yu Debin, the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, along with many other government and tourism company leaders, foreign embassy representatives to China, media, and Chinese and overseas invited guests and tourists, about 6,000 in total, witnessed the grand opening ceremony at the site.
Chinese and overseas VIP guests attended the festival
Mr. Dujiang, the Vice Director of China National Tourism Administration made a speech.
Mr. Song Yu, the Director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development made a speech
Vice mayor Cheng Hong and the Chinese and overseas invited guests are beating drums to begin the opening ceremony
Song Yu, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, emphasized in his speech that this tourism festival lasts for 5 days with the theme “Charming Silk Road, Glamorous Beijing”, surrounding the national strategy “One Belt and One Road” to expose the diversity of the Beijing tourism resources and the international style of the Beijing tourism market.
Spectators on site
As an important part of the Beijing International Tourism Festival, the dazzling and grand costume procession began after the grand opening ceremony ended. This year’s costume procession performance is themed with the “New Silk Road Style”, participated by 26 performing troupes from 19 countries from Asia, Europe, Africa and other continents along the “One Belt and One Road” route, and nearly 1,000 actors and actresses gave a wonderful real time performance on the viewing avenue of the Olympic Park. The entire performance was divided into five parts: Legend of the ancient road, Eurasian charm, Song of the sea, Heritage of western land and One world，one community, and each part consisted of classic Chinese and overseas folk culture and custom programs.
During the over one-hour performance, the 26 outstanding Chinese and overseas troupes drew much attention of the audience at the site. Among the performances, the Canadian big bagpipe and highland dance troupes revealed the core of their culture and customs to the Chinese and overseas tourists on site with their excellent performance and unique folk costumes. The CCTV, BTV and other major media reported the grand costume procession and have synchronized and shared the splendid moments of the event with the global audience and netizens.
GRUPO DE BAILE SUR DE ANDALUCIA, SPAIN
Canadian Pipe band and Highland Dancing group，Canada
Art Appreciation ensemble, Egypt
Lithuanian children and youth centre, Lithuania
Polish youth marching band, Radom, Poland
Indonesian Dance and music group, Indonesia
Czech Folk Dance Troupe，Czech
Info of Ballet folclorico de Casanare，Columbia
China disabled art troupe
In addition to the costume performance and the “Amazing Beijing Travel, Tourism Consulting Accompanying You” Beijing Tourism Consulting Day theme activities, the tourism festival will also hold parallel events at Shijingshan Amusement Park, the Gold Sea Lake and the Miyun Caravan Vehicle Town. In addition, the specially prepared “Touch Beijing” series theme activities for the tourism festival will also be gradually launched during the National Day holiday, aimed to expose the Old Beijing cultural market and promote the healthy modern tourism concept.
Compared with the previous festivals, this tourism festival is even more internationalized and publicized and is even more beneficial to the public.
Cheng Hong, deputy mayor of the Beijing Municipal Government, has highly spoken of the Beijing International Tourism Festival, expressing that the festival has become the most influential international tourism celebration activity and an important platform for Beijing’s tourism cultural communication with foreign countries. It plays an important role in revealing Beijing’s profound history and culture and the image of an international metropolis, and enriching the National Day’s Golden Week tourist life and other aspects of Beijing residents and tourists from around the world. This tourism festival has clearly found Beijing tourism’s spotlights and key aspects of development and construction and closely linked festival activities and market and industry together based on the theme “One Belt and One Road”, and will become a positive booster to the development of the Beijing tourism industry.
