Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It’s my great pleasure to join you at the 2017 Chinese Culture and Tourism Festival. First of all, I would like to extend my appreciation to my colleagues and friends from both China and Canada, for the tireless efforts to promote the cultural and tourist exchanges between the two countries.

Blessed with rich tourist resources, both China and Canada are among the most popular countries, and they are important tourist markets and destinations to each other. The recent years have seen significant opportunities for the bilateral tourism cooperation. Firstly, the launch of the 2015-2016 Year of Cultural Exchanges has provided a favorable environment for cultural interactions. Secondly, the mutual agreement on ten-year multiple entry visas has greatly facilitated the two way flow of tourists.

Now that China and Canada have agreed to make 2018 the Year of Canada-China Tourism, I hope that our friends in the tourist industries can seize the opportunity and strengthen their cooperation, so as to provide more choices and benefits to the tourists in China and Canada, and make due contributions to the deepening of China-Canada people to people exchanges.

The theme for this year’s Festival is Beautiful China, More than Pandas. It’s our hope that it will provide an opportunity for the Canadians to have a better idea of China’s beauty and wonder, and we sincerely welcome all of you to visit China and see for yourselves a real, diversified China.

In closing, I wish a complete success for the festival, and a wonderful evening for all of you. Thank you!