Hungary participated as a special guest at the 5th Dunhuang Silk Road International Tourism Festival in China, organized on 16-18 June 2015 in Jiayuguan, Gansu province. The tourism delegation of the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy was headed by Minister of State for Public Administration Judit Gondos and composed by Deputy State Secretary for Tourism Dr Ádám Ruszinkó and Hungarian Tourism Ltd CEO Dr Péter Faragó.
The delegation also visited Xi’an to participate at the 7th UNWTO International Meeting on Silk Road Tourism and the 1st Tourism Ministerial Meeting of Countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt. The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road are currently among the largest Chinese strategic projects and they are planned to be realized by a Chinese so-called Silk Road Fund and by the assistance of countries situated along the ancient Silk Road route.
The fact that the first signatory of the agreement on the establishment of a 21st century Silk Road on 6 June 2015 had been Hungary shows the dynamism of Hungarian-Chinese relations. As a consequence, Hungary’s participation at this year’s Silk Road Festival and the subsequent professional conference gained special significance. In addition to a promotional speech on Hungary delivered by Dr Péter Faragó, the Hungarian delegation held talks with representatives of Gansu province on bilateral tourism cooperation including the issue of the joint marketing of the Silk Road as a thematic tourism route. In Xi’an, the delegation met with the president of the China National Tourism Administration and leaders of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, discussing Hungarian-Chinese tourism relations. Currently, China is the world’s number one sender country and therefore Chinese tourists are a prioritized target group for every country. Hungary hopes that the growth trend of inbound Chinese tourism traffic the volume of which soared by some 20 percent last year – underpinned also by the Beijing-Budapest flight launched in May this year – will remain in place and even improve.
(Ministry for National Economy)
