The "2024 China Leshan Tourism Global Marketing · Bangkok, Thailand Promotion Conference", hosted by the People's Government of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, China and supported by the Bangkok China Cultural Center and the Asia-Pacific Tourism Association, was held on April 30, 2024 at the China Cultural Center in Bangkok, Thailand, in order to pragmatically promote cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation among world heritage cities in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. The National Tourism Administration of Thailand (NTAT), Asia-Pacific Tourism Association (APTA), Changwat Prachuap Khiri Khan and other relevant Thai friendly cities and cooperative units, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, the Chinese Cultural Center in Bangkok, the representative of the Chinese Tourism Office in Bangkok, and other Chinese and Thai personalities attended the event and fully exchanged and interacted with each other.the Chinese Cultural Center in Bangkok.

At the event, the Second Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, the Deputy Director General of the East Asia Department of the National Tourism Authority of Thailand (NTAT), and the Chief Operating Officer of the Asia-Pacific Tourism Association (APTA) delivered welcoming speeches. Zhang Guoqing, the Vice Mayor of the People's Government of Leshan City delivered a speech, introducing the stunning world heritage of Leshan, the long history and culture, and the local specialties to the guests, and warmly inviting all circles in Thailand to visit Leshan for tourism, exchanges and cooperation. He mentioned that in 2022 and 2023, with the world heritage as the medium, Leshan City has hosted the “the Lancang-Mekong River World Heritage Cities Dialogue”, an important foreign exchange program at the provincial and national levels, respectively, to promote practical exchanges and cooperation in humanities between Sichuan and Chongqing regions and the Lancang-Mekong River Basin World Heritage-related cities by means of academic seminars, cultural and artistic exchanges, and tourism cooperation. Zhang Guoqing said that the Lancang-Mekong River basin has nurtured a brilliant civilization and a world-renowned natural and cultural heritage. China and Thailand, both belonging to the Lancang-Mekong Basin, are important tourist destinations and source areas for each other. Leshan's tourism products are highly favored by Thai tourists. He said that through this event, Leshan hopes to make tourism cooperation an important way to promote people to people connections and help create more stable and secure regional relations by leveraging the exchanges and contacts between the "the Belt and Road" initiative and countries and regions along the line, tourism organizations, travel agents, etc.

On October 29, 2013, Leshan and Changwat Prachuap Khiri Khan of Thailand formally signed an agreement on the establishment of a friendship city relationship. Since the conclusion of the friendship city, the two sides have had frequent and effective exchanges among governments, enterprises and civil groups. At present, Leshan has established friendly relations with several important international tourist destinations with world heritage in the Mekong countries such as Siem Reap Province of Cambodia, Luang Prabang City of Laos, Angkor Wat Scenic Area of Cambodia, and Wapu Temple of Laos, etc. Substantial cooperation has been carried out in the fields of tourism, culture, education, and economic and trade, etc., which has maintained a long-term and stable momentum.

In order to open up the Thai market for inbound tourism in Leshan City, the promotion has been carefully prepared with content about tourism resources, products and policies. Focusing on the four aspects of “Leshan is fun, Leshan is delicious, Leshan is beautiful, and Leshan is hospitable”, we recommend to show the unique charm of Leshan, “the whole area is beautiful”. Leshan is optimizing and upgrading payment services in key places. In major scenic spots, hotels, resorts, theaters and other important consumption scenarios, overseas tourists can more conveniently choose from a series of payment services such as overseas bank card payment, RMB cash payment, mobile payment and digital RMB payment. At the same time, for overseas tourists in the ticketing process, we will optimize the online ticketing reservation process, provide a dedicated offline ticketing window, and provide tourists who come to Le with a better travel experience service. In addition, Mount Emei Scenic Area and the Giant Buddha Scenic Area respectively carried out tourism promotion of key scenic spots, and cultural and tourism enterprise recommenders such as Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area Tourism Investment Development (Group) Co., Ltd. introduced the line products in Leshan City and the series line products between Leshan City and other cities and states in Sichuan. 

In order to promote the cultural and tourism cooperation between the two places to be deeper and more practical, after negotiation, Leshan tourism enterprises and relevant Thai enterprises reached a consensus on cooperation. At the promotion meeting, Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area Tourism Investment Development (Group) Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Thailand Rongtai Trade Tourism Co., Ltd. and Thailand Asia Tourism HELLO ASIA, which will carry out close cooperation in resource sharing and mutual delivery of tourists.

Guests attending the seminar also included the Director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Bangkok, officials from the Department of International Relations of Changwat Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, the Vice Chairman of the Thailand Outbound Tourism Association, the Vice Chairman of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Association, the Vice President of the Thai Red Cross Nursing College, the First Class Artist of Thailand, the President of the Royal Bangkok Painting Academy of the Kingdom of Thailand, as well as representatives of the key Thai travel agents, artists, representatives of the Chitralada Technology Institute of Thailand, and friends from the press and the media.

After the seminar, the opening ceremony of “Drinking Water from the Same River, Talking about the Love of Lan Mekong--Jiazhou School of Painting Exhibition” was held to introduce the Jiazhou School of Painting to the Thai public and to hold the opening ribbon-cutting ceremony. Exhibition works to Leshan landscape scenery, Leshan humanities landscape as the theme, the exhibitors guests to a new visual experience way to feel Leshan style.

It is reported that this art exhibition will be open for free to the local public in Thailand from 08:30-17:00 on April 30, 2024 to May 3, 2024.