Mohammad Saiyedul Islam: To bring authoritative information to the tourism industry under the common proposition of global sustainable development, the 31st Guangzhou International Travel Fair was successfully held under the theme of "Come Together - For a Sustainable Future". This travel exhibition is the first large-scale cultural and tourism event held in China after the COVID-19 epidemic and the tourism market has fully recovered. 

Between 19-21 May, the expo was held in Guangzhou Import and Export Fair Complex which is hosted by Guangzhou Municipal Tourism Bureau. The exhibition scale of 22,000 square meters attracted exhibitors from 55 countries and regions and concentratedly demonstrated the new trend of cultural and tourism integration. The digital development of cultural tourism, which has been widely concerned by the industry, has also become a new hot spot in this exhibition. The joint exhibition area of digital culture and tourism has attracted many visitors.

Harlem Fernando, Minister of Tourism and Land of Sri Lanka; Tan Ping, Vice Mayor of Guangzhou Municipality; Maribel Rodrigue, Senior Vice President of the World Travel and Tourism Council; Ye Junde, Deputy Director-General of the Hong Kong Tourism Board; Elizabeth, tourism counselor of the Cuban embassy in China attended in the opening ceremony. Besides that, other diplomats, business leaders, representatives from many countries, domestic Government leaders, and officials from various provinces and cities also attended and witnessed the opening ceremony.

Focusing on the latest trend in global cultural and tourism development, this year’s exhibition focuses on the high-quality integrated development of culture and tourism, comprehensive upgrades in terms of theme planning, exhibition layout, and professional forums, cross-border integration of professional forums, more emphasis on exploring the development of urban cultural tourism, cultivation of new forms of cultural tourism, and strive to promote cultural tourism industry to develop a new atmosphere and create a new situation, and better meet the people's yearning for a better life. In addition to displaying the latest international tourism information and providing a platform for domestic and foreign tourism industry exchanges, the exhibition actively inherits culture, creates highlights of the exhibition from various aspects such as intangible cultural heritage and tea ceremony, and showcases the elegance of a world-class tourist destination.

Bangladeshi Travel Vlogger KH Shaikh Ahmed said What started as an international travel fair turned out to be the best experience ever for me, meeting up with different people yet sharing the same passion and experiences with all of us. I had the opportunity to join this international travel fair and document some of the historical places in Guangzhou. With my travel mate, I was able to visit some places and these places represent local history heritage, and culture. China has one of the oldest cultures in the world, with that comes with a long history of different historical events, structures, and traditions. At the same time were visiting different stalls at the international travel fair where we had the experience of the local travel industry, in addition, the government is very much supportive of tourism within and outside the country. With the support of the governments, here a lot of companies are looking forward to working together under the same roof, offering special offers to travelers. In the airline industry, APP-based tourism companies offer great travel plans for all types of travelers whether low-budget or higher-budget. The event is admirable from the point of succession and enhancing tourism. The other countries have the opportunity to learn from China where this travel industry could thrive and bring about changes in the tourism sector. It creates a stable local economy and jobs for the locals. It was my great pleasure to be there experiencing the event and tour to different historical places in Guangzhou.

The organizer said that Guangzhou, as a national central city, is actively building a world-class tourist destination and an international consumption center city, and the development of exhibition tourism is an important direction. Guangzhou International Travel Fair is one of the oldest tourism professional exhibitions in China. Over the past 31 years, the exhibition has focused on displaying the new trend of cultural and tourism integration under the new development pattern of "dual cycles", helping Guangzhou to build a world-level tourist destination.

At this travel fair, travel companies and agencies launched a comprehensive list of special discounts for a large number of tourism products and services with a variety of methods such as direct sales of popular products, free gift giving, installment discounts, ticket lottery, local entertainment, air tickets, hotels, scenic spot tickets, meal coupons, visas, study abroad and many more. In addition, travel companies and agencies directly operated online shopping malls, and other channels to share the travel exhibition discounts so that citizens and friends or travelers who cannot reach the travel exhibition site can choose to buy online or inquire.

In 2023, Sri Lanka is the guest of honor country of the Guangzhou International Travel Expo. At this exhibition, Sri Lanka presented itself with a brand-new high-quality tourist destination, bringing nearly 20 important tourist destination management companies, hotel groups, and local travel agencies, fully demonstrating the uniqueness of the "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" tourism resources.

This year's Guangzhou International Travel Fair is full of "international standards", with heavy "guests" from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and many other countries appearing, as well as the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, WTCF, World Animal Protection, Tourism Micro Lecture Hall, China-Israel Cultural and Economic Promotion Association, Japan JCL Company Limited, AirAsia and other institutions and enterprises participated in the exhibition. Among them, the Saudi Arabian Tourism Bureau participated in a tourism exhibition in China for the first time, relying on the Guangzhou Tourism Exhibition platform to promote Saudi leisure tourism resorts.

China's many provinces and cities such as Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Qinghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Nanjing, Ningbo, and many other popular tourist areas exhibited together for the first time this year and participated at the Guangzhou Travel Expo to showcase the latest online celebrity gameplay. In addition, cultural and tourism companies such as Canton Tower and China Southern Airlines brought the latest tourism experience and high-quality products during the International Travel Fair.

In the process of becoming a global city, Guangzhou takes cultural tourism diplomacy as an important starting point to enhance the city's international image and uses international exhibitions and conferences as an important platform to continuously improve the city's international image. The cultural tourism highlights and characteristic experiences all over Guangzhou condense into a unique urban charm. Guangzhou continues to create desirable new cultural and tourism experiences, attracting tourists to discover the beauty of Guangzhou through in-depth experience, micro-vacation, and slow life, and taking Guangzhou as their wish destination. This year's International Travel Expo has different areas such as the B&B exhibition area, the museum joint exhibition area, the intangible cultural heritage exhibition area, the exhibition area of the Guangzhou tea culture, and a Great Bay creative cultural tourism experience area.