Xu Jing joined the World Tourism Organization in 1992 as an Officer to the Regional Representation for Asia and the Pacific. His tasks included the preparation and organisation of WTO's Regional Commission Meetings for Asia and the Pacific; assistance in technical cooperation activities; the preparation and presentation of working documents for technical meetings; selection of tourism development project personnel; preparation of project budgets; evaluation of project reports; and supervision of technical studies / WTO publications on subjects of contemporary interest to the tourism community of Asian countries. He is currently the Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, a position he assumed from the beginning of 2004.

Reporter: Hello, Mr Xu. On behalf of IHFO, we sincerely welcome your visit here.

Mr Xu: I am delighted that I am invited to attend the third session summit of IHFO in Zhuhai, a pretty good coastal city. I, on behalf of WTO and myself really appreciated the warmly invitation from IHFO and we sincerely wish this 3rd Summit of the International Hotel Forum Organization every success. This forum bears a profound and significant sense to the development of the tourism in China or even the world, hereby, I sincerely wish the attendants could gain great success no matter from thought or behaviors and could make great contributions to the development of tourism in China and worldwide.

Reporter: For the 3rd summit of IHFO, which kind of significances it would exert on the tourism in China and worldwide? And what expectations have you put on this forum?

Mr Xu: The whole situation of China's tourism is quite good. At present, the exploration of China's tourism goes successfully which opens a new road to China's tourism. It is also a good opportunity for the 3rd summit of IHFO. In other words, having a good international and domestic environment, it could maintain China's tourism in a sustained and rapid development. Mr H.Varma, the previous president of WTO ahead of me, had attended the second session summit of IHFO, which was held in Hangzhou and its feedback sounds great. I believe that China's hotel and tourism will reach a higher standard. In the following years, it is an important period for the development of China's tourism and hotel. Therefore, I sincerely hope IHFO could be cultivated to be an international, authoritative and technology-style summit upholding the right orientation and the development of China's economy. In light of the authoritative platform, we could implant the excellent management experience into China's hotel and tourist industry to promote its development or even the whole development of domestic economy.

Reporter: what differs from China's tourism and that of international? What should we focus on to improve China's tourism?

Mr Xu: Compared with the developed countries, China still lags behind. No doubt, China's tourism develops rapidly. For example, the inbound tourists reached 41 million in China, while that of Japan reaches 17 millions in 10 years. As China's tourism climbs up rapidly, therefore, many businessmen and hotel investors in China focus on the development of China's hotel industry. In other words, tourism and hotel are promoting with each other. We should not simply focus on the number but should pursue the improvement of quality. In order to shortcut the distances with the developed countries, China's tourism should move forward and strengthen in management, environmental improvement and investment.

Reporter: As a member of WTO, you usually travel home and abroad, could you mention something concerning the differences of hotel services in home and abroad?

Mr Xu: Hotels in international are intended to develop holiday and resorts hotels for leisure. They are committed to make the visitors feel relax and have a nice trip. Generally speaking, China's hotel industry has walked out of the early models, though, majority hotels still focus on business hotels. Being greatly influenced by the climate of international hotels, China's hotels get rid of the traditional model and resort to develop one's own holiday and resorts hotels. However, there is a long way to go for China's hotel to catch up with that of developed countries.

Reporter: Confronted with the intensive competitions from international hotels and more new management models and investment conceptions coming into China, what should China's hotel industry do to challenge its survival and development?

Mr Xu: China's hotels should walk on a road with one's own characteristics in order to survive and develop. It is miserable for us to follow the west hotels in form and essences just as what we should not just stick to the traditional system. Foreign hotels take the advantage of capital and technique, while china's local hotels are also in possession of some advantages, which are not possessed by foreign hotels, for example, governmental support, excellent ethic and cultural resources etc. Therefore, China's hoteliers should bear a long-sighted sight and takes in some excellent management experience from international hotel brand from the whole situations. Integrated with China's current situations and local hotels, hoteliers should cultivate one's own ethic brand accordingly and on purposely.

Reporter: Majority hotels make use of the gold weekend such as ' Labor's Day' and ' National Day' to promote the lodging rate, what do you think of it?

Mr Xu: This kind of phenomenon could be treated normal or abnormal. Gold weekend is committed to make the visits fully enjoyed oneself. Some hotels make use of this period of time to formulate something special or discount to attract visitors. While if you do not treat it in a right way, it could bring about a lot of troubles to one's hotels. As the influx of the visitors, some problems will come out in management, services etc, and various kinds of service quality and environmental quality will be challenged. Once the guests come into your hotels, one will feel cheated and complain about it. In this way, your brand image or your hotel fame will be damaged, which will exert positive effect on the development of hotels. On the contrary, if you could maintain your customers fully satisfied, it is a good opportunity for you to promote your hotels. Therefore, it is terrible for the hoteliers just to promote one's lodging rate to pursue one's interest. Only one delicate to dig out one's own potential and outlandish one's own characteristics, could we promote the service quality and attract more customers to stay.