The international health tourism forum, one of the forums of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), kicked off on Tuesday with many medical experts from home and aboard sharing knowledge and experiences on how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and how to boost tourism sector with the combination of wellness and travel.

Global tourism is one of the worst-hit sectors due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Under such circumstances, "the rapid development of health tourism has become a new highlight of the global tourism and health industry," Wang Qi, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering said at the forum, adding that the travel industry has accounted for 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the world; among them, more than 100 countries and regions across the globe have already rolled out health tourism. 

In 2017, the world's tourists made 830 million healthy trips, and its market size made up for 16.8 percent of the total tourism market expenditure globally, according to Wang. "There are many medical tourism destinations globally, including South Korea, Switzerland, and Australia. While there are 77 longevity villages with its own unique secret to long life, and we should make good use of these tourism resources", he added.

The charm of TCM

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Zhang Boli, head of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has helped the world recognize the power and great charms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by leading an expert team to treat COVID-19 infections in Wuhan.

"The results show that the TCM has played an important role in the treatment of COVID-19," Zhang said in the video at the forum, adding that the TCM, notably the Lianhua Qingwen capsules, have reduced the proportion of mild cases developing into severe cases and shortening the duration in which patients go from testing positive to testing negative. 

Meanwhile, Zhang also shared the experience of how Beijing has done in the fight against the new clusters of COVID-19 in June this year. He suggested in the future, we should prevent the coronavirus being brought into China through contaminated frozen food or outer packaging, and we need to detect the epidemic for the first time and control it in time.  

According to the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China has shared TCM therapy, effective prescriptions, and clinical experience for combating COVID-19 with more than 80 countries and regions.

So far, Lianhua Qingwen capsules have made inroads into eight countries and two regions under different categories, including Chinese medicine, Chinese patent drug, botanical drug products, dietary supplements, and food additive, among others. 

This forum is co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS), aiming to share China's COVID-19 prevention and control experience with countries across the globe and trying to improve the advantages of the health tourism in the world. 

(Cover photo designed by Chen Yuyang)