# KOREA The Seoul International Fair and Sustainable Tourism Forum 2016 held from September 20-21 at the Grand Hilton Hotel, Seoul, discussed sustainable, coexisting tourism in mega-cities. Co-hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Tourism Organisation, in cooperation with UNWTO, the forum brought together experts from international organisations and academia to discuss policies and share best practices on fair and sustainable tourism. The forum invited experts including Xu Jing, Executive Secretary and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, UNWTO, and Harold Goodwin, Former Professor of MMU / Managing director & Advisor, Responsible Tourism Partnership. The number of global tourists in 2015 reached nearly 1.2 billion and is expected to exceed 1.8 billion by 2030 and mega-cities are at the centre of tourism in many countries. Dubbed “touristification”, growth in tourism also creates negative impacts, such as conflicts between the local inhabitants and the tourists. UNWTO recognised the problem and designated the year 2017 as the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.' At the end of the Forum, the participants adopted the Seoul Declaration for Fair Tourism, where new paths and methods were set forth to shed light on urban tourism for not only Seoul but other mega-cities in Asia and beyond. The UNWTO and Seoul Tourism Organization also signed an MOU to further promote fair tourism.
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NOV-DEC 2016
SHANGHAI Groups arriving in Shanghai via cruises will now be given 15 days of visa-free stay, according to local immigration inspection authorities. Cruise passengers must belong to tourist groups organised by travel agencies that are legally registered in China. Travel agencies will need to submit name lists of foreign tourist groups to inspection authorities 24 hours before the
cruise ships arrive. Expats from cruise ships are only allowed to stay in Shanghai or travel to Beijing and coastal provinces where cruise ships berth. More than 1.6 million cruise ship passengers entered China via Shanghai ports last year, up 35.5 percent from 2014. Of these in 2015, only 69,000 were foreigners.