Panda Bear took over Finland with Sichuan tourism promotion outreach

A wide range of panda elements, mesmerizing photos of tourism in Sichuan, electrifying bianlian face-change and Sichuan opera performances. On October 24 local time, the “Beautiful Sichuan, More than Pandas” global tourism promotion campaign commenced inside the Hotel Kamp in the Finnish city Helsinki. Speeches were delivered by Deputy Secretary Deng, Culture Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Finland Guo Xiaoguang and Kristiina Hietasaari of the country’s tourism body Visit Finland. Other participants at this promo event included well-known local tourism service providers and media.

In order to advertise Sichuan’s tourism resources, increase the level of understanding of Sichuan tourism among the Finnish public, on October 24 local time, a Sichuan tourism promo group led by the Deputy Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee Deng Xiaogang and Deputy Director of the Sichuan Provincial Tourism Development Commission Song Ming arrived in Finland and carried out the “Beautiful Sichuan, More than Pandas” global tourism promotion campaign.

Deputy Director Song and representatives of Sichuan travel agencies provided an in-depth introduction about Sichuan tourism resources and tourism products. Local industry attendees showed an intense interest in Sichuan tourism products, and expressed the wish to head to Sichuan for on-site investigations in order to further strengthen rapport with Sichuan tourism and roll out tourism routes and products for Sichuan as soon as possible.

Deputy Secretary Deng Xiaogang and Kristiina Hietasaari of Visit Finland jointly “painted the eyes” for the colorful panda artwork. As a testimony to the mutual understanding and friendship between the two parties, Deputy Secretary Deng Xiaogang presented to Visit Finland painted panda artwork. Thereafter, a contract-signing ceremony was held for Sichuan and Finnish tourism enterprises, signifying the official start of cooperation in fields such as international inbound tourism market.

During the promo campaign, the score of panda mascots from Sichuan captivated the attention of local folks and tourists, many of which actively participated in the painting of blank panda models. Following the materialization of unique panda artworks one after another, all of which represent qualities and characteristics of “Sichuan in my eyes,” the Finnish public was able to garner a deeper understanding about  tourism in Sichuan.

nder the backdrop of stable progress in Chinese-Finnish relations and the framework of the “One Belt One Road,” exchanges and cooperation between Sichuan and Finland have continued to deepen in recent years. In 2015, under the auspices of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese-Finnish diplomatic relations, Sichuanprovincial capital Chengdu and the Finnish city of Rovaniemi jointly signed a memorandum of understanding for the formation of sister cities relations. In March this year, a memorandum of understanding for the formation of friendly cooperative relations was inked between the Sichuan city of Dujiangyan and the Finnish city of Ähtäri. The two thereby became friendly cooperative cities and will focus their efforts on engendering exchanges and cooperation in areas such as tourism, culture, education and environmental protection.

On the day of October 24, the Sichuan tourism promotion group met with the Town Manager of Ähtäri Jarmo Pienimäki and chairperson of the Ähtäri Zoo, among others, in order to speak extensively about Sichuan’s international inbound tourism market.

During this meeting, the Sichuan tourism promo group catered to the preferences of Ähtäri tourists in explaining and analyzing their resources, and the two sides also discussed agendas such as local marketing and international promotion that target the Ähtäri market, support policies and service assurance measures that Sichuanneeds to provide, as well as how to sufficiently perform product research and development in concert with  Chinese domestic travel agency partners.

On October 25, the Sichuan tourism promo group visited officer Teemu Ahola, Asia Marketing Director with Visit Finland and provided introductions about Sichuan Province’s plethora of tourism resources and international inbound tourism reward and support policies. The two sides also traded opinions with regards to mutual assistance on tourist supply, and proceeded to establish a long-term partnership.

People involved with relevant matters have remarked that as one of the most innovative and internationalized Chinese cities today, Chengdu has already attracted and will continue to attract an increasingly larger number of Finns, Finnish organizations and companies to come to the city for vacation and business purposes. This promo activity was able to enable the Finnish public to acquire a deeper comprehension about Sichuan tourism, elevated the reputation of Sichuan tourism in Finland, propelled the growth of the Sichuaninternational inbound tourism market and opened up a new gateway into the international inbound tourist market of Northern Europe.