Anchored to a vision(2)

Countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could be early beneficiaries. In fact, Xi first put forward the idea during a speech in Indonesia on September 2013. China has been adding countries to the project since then.

In terms of tourism, an obvious beneficiary would be seaborne travel.

"When it comes to the Maritime Silk Road, what I think is interesting is that we see a very strong business in Europe from the cruise business," said David Baxby, CEO of Global Blue, a Swiss-based shopping company that specializes in the processing of tax-free spending by overseas visitors.

Baxby was speaking during the forum as a member of a panel sponsored by China Daily.

A second benefit of raising the profile of the MSR would be a boost in the already rapidly growing Chinese outbound market. Improving the routes and facilitating access could entice more Chinese tourists to travel abroad.

"(The MSR) is going to connect a lot of the emerging markets. It will propel tourism in a huge way. It will connect markets that are off the beaten path and may not be known in a huge way," said Abid Butt, CEO of Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, an international luxury group. "This initiative would only help us get more traction in emerging markets."

"People do want to enrich themselves through unique experiences and cultural experiences," he said, noting that tourism "is a catalyst in removing barriers around the world and we need to take advantage of that".

The rapidly growing participation of emerging market tourists is forcing the global tourism industry to adapt. Nowhere in the world is outbound tourism growing as fast as in the Asia-Pacific region, led by China.

The UNWTO says China's 98 million outbound tourists in 2013 spent $129 billion around the world. The Asia-Pacific region recorded the fastest growth in tourism of any region in the world, at 6 percent.

Even after four years of robust growth, only two Asia-Pacific destinations are among the top 10 in terms of international arrivals: China and Thailand. France remains the most popular destination for tourists to visit, followed by the United States and Spain.

Asian destinations are doing better in terms of receipts from tourism, with the Chinese mainland, Macao, Thailand and Hong Kong all in the top 10 by this measure. For both industry and governments, however, this is not enough.

To attract more travelers and get them to spend more, better infrastructure and more comprehensive services are needed.

"We need collaboration between the government and the private sector - an investment-friendly policy," said Edmond Ip, vice-chairman of the Artyzen Hospitality Group, a hotel management company that is part of Hong Kong-based Shun Tak Holdings.

Ip, a well-known industry figure, says three things are needed in the Asia-Pacific region to ensure constant and sustainable levels of growth.

The first is a new focus on tourism infrastructure, including simplifying visa processes as much as possible and speeding up immigration controls at airports, reliable public transport and a safe environment for business.

The second is to develop more attractions such as theme parks, museums and nature reserves to attract more people to the region.

The third is more large-scale tourism events. Singapore and Dubai are success stories that could be emulated, he said.

While the growth of the Asia-Pacific tourism industry remains impressive, it is still driven in large part by ongoing economic growth in the region and the emergence of a consumer class with the disposable income to travel further and more often.

A key focus for many at the forum was to ensure sustainable growth - sustainable in terms of both business and the environment.

And while tourist destinations in the region require better infrastructure to attract more international tourists from Europe, North America, Latin America and Africa, destinations abroad may also need to step up the services they provide to Asian tourists.

Global Blue is moving forward on this front. Last year it introduced Alipay, China's largest e-payment provider, in Europe to facilitate transactions for Chinese travelers. The growth, said Baxby, has been impressive.

More such services are needed, said Wang Ping, chairman of the China Chamber of Tourism. She said the number of Chinese tourists is certainly on the rise but so is the number that comes back to China unhappy with their experiences, due to the lack of services in Mandarin or poor communication with hosts.

And the growth of Chinese outbound tourism is creating another concern for the CCT. On average, Chinese tourists spend abroad three times as much as inbound tourists spend in China.

"This means we are not preparing enough for foreign tourists coming into China. That is why foreign tourists are not spending enough when they come," Wang said. "We need to pay attention to the problem of trade deficit."

"I hope for the MSR we can have new facilities and hotels," Wang said, adding, "I hope everyone can work together to build the MSR and have a very close alliance."

If trends continue, more than 100 million tourists will make a trip out of China this year and will be part of more than a billion international travelers globally.

In the next decade, tourism and related industries could create some 70 million jobs - two-thirds of them in Asia - and "be a force for good in international relations", said Michael Frenzel, chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Agreement on this point at the forum was widespread, but so was the understanding that the global tourism industry and its hundreds of thousands of stakeholders, from hostel operators to government leaders, need to pay more attention to sustainable growth - not just sustainable in terms of the environment, but also in terms of economics.