The closing ceremony will include the European Union Light Show projected on the historical Xi’an South Gate which will show highlights of the 2018 ECTY with a visual travel experience across the EU Member States and celebrate the links between China and Europe. The program will also feature the European Union Youth Orchestra. Read more: Leaflet Closing Ceremony

More than 150 initiatives and high level institutional events took place during the year at European, national, regional and local levels. These initiatives are listed on a dedicated website (Read more: 2018 EU-China Tourism Year – Xi’an – press package) They include multilevel marketing campaigns, business to business matchmaking, summits and conferences, the first EU-China Travel Fair on Cultural Tourism and one of a kind events such as the EU-China Light Bridge which illuminated landmarks across China and the EU. These events reached thousands of audiences, mobilised hundreds of tourism stakeholders and boosted cooperation between businesses. During 2018, more Europeans and more Chinese became aware of the richness and diversity of each other’s culture, nature and exceptional tourism destinations.

(The Xian South Gate, venue of the closing ceremony)

Mrs Lowri Evans, Head of EU Delegation in Xi’an and Director-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission said:

“Thanks to the EU-China-Tourism Year, we now have people who learned to work with each other to deliver concrete results. It is important to preserve and capitalise on this experience to pursue further contacts between our peoples and more cooperation between our businesses.”