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EDINBURGH, June 28, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Song Yu (R), head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, and Neil Brownlee, head of Business Tourism at VisitScotland, unveil the Beijing tourism photo show in Edinburgh, Britain, on June 27, 2016. A grand photo show was held on Monday inside the famous tourist attraction of Edinburgh Castle to promote Beijing tourism resources, attract tourists and enhance cultural exchanges. (Xinhua/Guo Chunju)
EDINBURGH, June 27 (Xinhua) -- A grand photo show was held on Monday inside the famous tourist attraction of Edinburgh Castle to promote Beijing tourism resources, attract tourists and enhance cultural exchanges.
Organized by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, the Beijing tourism photo show exhibited more than 80 photos taken in Beijing to reflect China's capital city from various perspectives including architecture, fashion, opera and cuisine, with the aim to provide visitors with an insight of Beijing.
Addressing the invited guests and visitors, Song Yu, head of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, said that the photo show aims to promote Beijing tourism resources and strengthen the tourism exchange and cooperation with Edinburgh, as Britain has been keeping the leading position as a major inbound source market of Beijing for years, while Edinburgh, a famous historical and cultural city in Britain, is also an important outbound travel source market.
Song, who is also secretary-general of World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF), hailed WTCF's rapid development as the federation currently has 164 members, including 110 city members and 54 institutional members after its establishment in 2012 in Beijing.
He told Xinhua that foreign tourists are expected to know more about Beijing, love Beijing and China, which will promote cultural exchanges through tourism.
"Since the granting of Approved Destination Status in 2005, we have been welcoming increasing numbers from China, and in 2015, we saw a 45 percent increase of visitors compared with 2014, "said Neil Brownlee, head of Business Tourism at VisitScotland who unveiled the photo show together with Song, hailing the increasing inquiries and business events from the Chinese market as "fantastic" for Scotland, with growing links between Scotland and the Chinese side.
Brownlee told Xinhua that city-to-city links and exchanges is a good platform to promote tourism, terming the photo show as a good event to add color to the program and event at Edinburgh Castle.
"There is no doubt that the photo show will enrich the content of the year of Sino-UK tourism," said Zhang Huazhong, Chinese Deputy Consul General in Edinburgh, believing that the photo show will help tourists from Scotland and other places to gain more knowledge about Beijing and other cities in China, bring more foreign tourists to China and enhance exchanges.
Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, joined the WTCF in December 2012 to become the 62nd member of the non-governmental and non-profit international tourism organization.
