Published on : Thursday, May 31, 2018
The tourist number in the areas along the Road increased from 775,000 in 2012 to almost 3.1 million in 2016, with 2.1 million coming from China, the report stated.
Disclosed at the Belt and Road tourist city mayors’ summit in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, the report highlighted maritime heritage and cruises, and inspected the implications for UNWTO members.
“As a component of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road is expected to play a vital role for the maritime infrastructure development through regional cooperation, and it has a potential to favour the establishment of new maritime routes based on the ancient Maritime Silk Road heritage,” said Robert Travers, a consultant with the UNWTO Silk Road Program and author of the report.
Mainly related to the inland routes, the historic Silk Road has an extensive network of maritime itineraries, providing outstanding experiences, heritage and culture, Travers said.
The aggregate scale of international tourism along the Road reports around 70 percent of the global total, said Li Jinzao, China’s vice minister of culture and tourism at the summit.