Before the opening of the Beijing·Pinggu 2020 World Leisure Congress onthe morning of April 16, Cai Qi, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, met with Joanne Schroeder, Chair of the World Leisure Organization via video. Hu Heping, Vice Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Culture and Tourism, and Chen Jining, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Beijing, attended the meeting.

Cai Qi expressed his heartfelt thanks to the World Leisure Organization for the support and guidance to Beijing on hosting this year's Congress, and introduced the economic and social development of Beijing. He pointed out that under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, Beijing has gained significant strategic outcomes in epidemic prevention and control, the city's economy has achieved faster growth in all major fields this year, and tourism consumption has rebounded significantly. The leisure tourism industry has a broad development prospect in Beijing. Cai Qi said that, by focusing on meeting the growing demands of the people for a better life, we will take this congress as an opportunity to further strengthen cooperation with the World Leisure Organization, and jointly promote the prosperous development of leisure tourism. From the beginning of preparation for this Congress, we have paid attention to the sustainable utilization of the conference heritage. Cai Qi said that we plan to build Jinhai Lake Town where the Congress is held into a conference and exhibition town, a shopping and consumption town and a unique all-for-one tourism town. We hope that the World Leisure Organization could provide professional guidance and support for the Congress, and introduce more international leisure events to Beijing by leveraging WLO's influence. We surely welcome the World Leisure Organization to locate its global or regional headquarters in Beijing and hold more international conferences and events with great influence in Beijing.

Joanne Schroeder spoke highly of Beijing's commitment and actions to promote the development of leisure tourism, and expressed her willingness to deepen exchanges with Beijing and to explore more cooperation in various fields. She supports locating the regional headquarter of the World Leisure Organization in Beijing to jointly promote the flourishing development of leisure tourism.

Municipal leaders Zhang Jiaming and Wang Hong attended the meeting.

(Article by Qi Mengzhu & Fan Junsheng  Photo by Dai Bing)