The 2015 7th TPO (Tourism Promotion Organization for Asia Pacific Cities) General Assembly had its grand opening in Sanya on May 28th.
 
The 2015 7th TPO (Tourism Promotion Organization for Asia Pacific Cities) General Assembly had its grand opening in Sanya on May 28th, drawing more than 250 representatives from 30 TPO member cities from 6 countries and regions. 
 
 Wu Yanjun, Vice Secretary of the Sanya Municipal Committee and Mayor of the Sanya Government delivered a speech at the openning ceremony.
 
Zhang Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of Hainan Province and Secretary of the Sanya Municipal Committee, Wu Yanjun, Vice Secretary of the Sanya Municipal Committee and Mayor of the Sanya Government, Li Baiqing, Vice Mayor of the Sanya Government, and other government officials were in attendance.
 

Under the theme of ‘New Leap of TPO’, the 2-day General Assembly is covering a wide range of key issues the tourism industry faces among the Asia Pacific Cities. 
 

Under the theme of ‘New Leap of TPO’, the 2-day General Assembly is covering a wide range of key issues the tourism industry faces among the Asia Pacific cities, such as the the Proposal for Cooperation and Development, Trends in the Global Tourism Industry and Direction of TPO, strategic marketing plans among the member cities and the development prospects of healthcare tourism destinations. 
 
Established on August 31st, 2002, TPO is an international travel cooperation organization with governmental institutions as members. At present, TPO has a total of 75 city members including 19 Chinese cities such as Sanya, Guangzhou, Dalian, Shanghai, Qingdao and 37 non-governmental organizations.
 

 Zhang Qi, a member of Provincial Standing Committee of Hainan and Secretary of the Sanya Municipal Committee meets the representatives from TPO member cities.
 
Sanya became a member in 2004 and it aims to strengthen cooperation and promote the development of the travel industry in the Asian-Pacific region.
 
Looking to tap development in the tourism sector, Sanya has placed big bets on this industry over the past decade and has made great achievements. The overnight-stay tourist arrivals to Sanya increased from 340,000 in 1998 to 13.53 million in 2014, with the tourism revenue increasing from 64 million yuan in 1987 to 27 billion yuan in 2014.
 
The rapid development in the tourism sector in such a short period has expanded the influence of the city as an international tourism hotspot.
 
With the support of TPO, the Sanya government launched a variety of measures and promotional campaigns for the member cities, including cities in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Russia to boost the city’s tourism industry, which brought a rapid increase to the total annual number of tourists.
 
SOURCE: WOS Team