Officials Advocate Broader Tourism Co-Operation Among SCO Members

Senior tourism officials are seeing big opportunities in tourism co-operation among member states of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO).

“Last year, a quarter of the tourists we received came from SCO member countries, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent,” Nikolay Korolev, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism, said at the first meeting of tourism ministers from SCO nations that opened last Wednesday in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Numon Abdughafforzoda, chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development under the Government of Tajikistan, said that tourism is increasingly becoming a driving force behind the country’s economic development.

“We have fully utilised tourism resources in Tajikistan such as highland and mineral resources, and we have attracted many tourists from SCO nations,” Mr Abdughafforzoda said.

The SCO accounts for over 60 per cent of the Eurasian landmass, nearly half of the world’s population and more than 20 per cent of global GDP. Its eight member states are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

China and the other member nations have been co-operating to develop tourism. According to China Tourism Academy, last year, the number of visitors from the SCO member countries to China reached 2.5 million, accounting for 8.6 per cent of the inbound tourists.