China International Travel Mart 2020 (CITM2020), jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, Civil AviationAdministration of China and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, kicked off in Shanghai on November 16. The aim of the event is to show the achievements of the cultural tourism industry in recent years, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in the cultural tourism industry, and boost the post-epidemic tourism market.

Founded in 1998, CITM has grown into one of the largest and most visible travel expos in the Asia-Pacific region. CITM2020 features strong linkages of culture and tourism, including the “Happy Chinese New Year”, “Culture City of East Asia” and “ASEAN”, “Key Projects of Belt and Road Cultural and Tourism Cooperation”, “Cultural and Creative Excellence” booths. Prominent cultural institutions such as the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, the National Library of China, and the National Art Museum of China also set up their own booths, offering visitors amazing experiences of tradition and modernity through creative products and showcases that testify the role of culture as a vital driver of tourism.

An important new feature of CITM2020 is that it heads both online and offline. While the offline venue focuses on the latest cultural and tourism development across Chinese regions, provinces and cities, the online platform will promote Chinese local destinations, new cultural elements and tourism products from all angles and at all dimensions in front of Chinese and international viewers. Through the online platform, CITM will go beyond the limits of space and time and serve as a business and trade platform with no barriers, or “a travel mart that never ends” for travel and tourism industries from China and abroad. It will gather global exhibitors and buyers and give them access to hold business talks both online and offline. Buyers and exhibitors will be paired by choice via the online booking system before engaging in one-to-one communication according to their booked time slots through video call, voice messaging or texting. Similarly, after reserving time slots and venues, exhibitors can hold online talks with overseas buyers in the exhibition hall, and meet on-site buyers at their will.

CITM2020 will open from November 16 to 18, but only to business participants on November 16 and 17. Public visit day is November 18.