Tourism officials, NGO representatives, academics and entrepreneurs at the press conference of the UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook [Photo by Tang Kan/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The discussions on the forum will focus on the future of China's tourism, technological fronts of tourism and objective of sustainable development in tourism. Some penal discussions will talk about the development of global and domestic tourism.

As always, the forum this year will maintain its Guilin section, and the theme this year is how to transform Guilin into a world first-class tourist resort.

The international scholars will offer advice and suggestions to Guilin from the perspective of countryside tourism, sustainable development in tourism, and China-ASEAN tourism education cooperation, etc.

The UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook has gained more and more influence worldwide for its professionalism, foresights and representativeness.

Guilin, as the permanent host city of the event, has turned it into a brand showing the city's image and acting as a window for the world to know about Guilin.

This year's forum is well-prepared, aiming to show Guilin's new look, and offers a platform for tourism elites to express advice and suggestions to Guilin. It is meaningful for Guilin to realize its goal of becoming a world-class tourist resort.

The international forum is also of value for other countries and regions to develop their tourism for intensive discussions on some topics that are important to the future of tourism.