On May 6, 2014, the 20th Golden Travel Awards of the Asian Tourism Summit kicked off in the city of Lingbi, Anhui province.

The summit was coorganized by Pan Asia Travel Association (PATA), Anhui Tourism Association, Anhui Huizhaoyirong Co. Ltd, Lingbi tourism bureau, and Lingbi Tourism Development Center.

Gu Xiulian, vice chairmen of the standing committee of the 10th National People's Congress of China, Chen Xuesen, vice director of Anhui province People's Congress, Zhou Jiucai, director of the Department of Policy and Legal Affairs, China National Tourism Administration, Tang Huixi, deputy inspector of the Policy Research Office, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Tang Hongguang, former director of the Comprehensive Coordination Department, China National Tourism Administration, Zhang Shuguang, secretary of Suzhou's Party committee, Tang Qingming, secretary of Lingbi county Party committee, and Hu Jinming, secretary of the organizing committee of the 20th Golden Travel Awards of the Asian Tourism Summit attended the summit.

200 delegates, including representatives from the tourism industry around the country and national media, also attended the event.

Gu Xiulian delivered a key speech, in which she pointed out that China as a world tourism destination, is in resources. In recent years, driven by the development of China's economy, China's tourism industry has achieved unprecedented prosperity. She hoped that China's tourism industry could keep pace with the times, and seize the unique development opportunities of implementing the "Beautiful China" blueprint and start a new journey. She was positive about the future and expressed her hope that the tourism industry would contribute to the country's social development and ecological construction.

Tang Qingming delivered a welcome speech in which he said that in recent years, the Lingbi government had made the tourism and service industry a priority to promote industrial development and industrial restructuring. Thanks to the innovative development pattern, tourism has been booming and has won an array of honorary titles. For example, Lingbi has won the Golden Travel Award of the 18th and 19th Golden Travel Awards of the Asian Tourism Summit and the titles of China's top ten cultural tourism county, and most attractive country in Greater China. Lingbi has also raised more than 1 billion yuan ($163 million) for cultural parks for its three most famous tourism brands, the rare stone, Zhong Kui and Yuji. Several related activities are also expected to take place to popularize Lingbi. He said that it's groundbreaking to hold the Golden Travel Award of the Asian Tourism Summit, which is a high-end platform for industry dialogue and showcase in a country, following a fourth consecutive success in the capital Beijing. It's also a good attempt for Lingbi to integrate tourism resources and to promote tourism industrialization.

With the theme of "Chinese style, Chinese love", this summit summarized the country's tourism development and achievements in 2013 and held a series of in-depth discussions on the synergies of tourism and culture, the integration of cultural brands and tourism brands, the integration of cultural consumption and tourism consumption, the integration of the tourism industry and the cultural industry and more. The summit displayed the country's tourism and cultural resources and awarded outstanding enterprises and individuals in the tourism industry.

After the opening ceremony, Zhou Jiucai delivered a lecture on in-depth integration of culture and tourism. Suzhou, Lingbi, and Five-thousand Culture Park were on the winning list of the cultural tourism brands in Greater China.

The Golden Travel Award of the Asian Tourism Summit was founded in 1995, and has gone through a glorious journey. China was selected as the host country since the 15th session and five sessions have been held successfully in Bo'ao Forum for Asia and Beijing. With nearly 20 years of experience, the Golden Travel Award of the Asian Tourism Summit has become one of the highly anticipated annual tourism summits, which attracts the attention of experts and strong support from all sectors of society.

Lingbi hosts 20th Golden Travel Award of Asian Tourism Summit

Tang Qingming delivers a welcome speech.

Gu Xiulian (middle) and award winners