On October 25th, the 3rd Annual Meeting of “17+1” China-CEEC Tourism School Alliance, hosted by BUU, was held in Tirana, the capital of Albania. The meeting is an important part of the 4th China-CEEC Capitals Mayors Forum. Lu Yan, Deputy Mayor of Beijing City, and Anisa Ruseti, Deputy Mayor of Tirana, addressed the meeting. Daina Sorensen, Deputy Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs of Albania, Huo Yuzhen, Special Representative for China-CEEC Cooperation Affairs, and Zhou Ding Chinese Ambassador to Albania, were present at the meeting, too. The opening ceremony of the meeting was chaired by Zhang Chi, Deputy Dean of the School of Tourism, BUU.

The Scene

In his speech, Deputy Mayor Lu Yan first thanked the Tirana City Government for its strong support to the holding of the meeting, and praised BUU for its long-term efforts to promote the development of tourism education and tourism industry in China and Central and Eastern European countries.

Deputy Mayor Lu Yan is giving a speech

The formal meeting was chaired by Daina Sorensen, Deputy Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs of Albania. At the signing ceremony, which was held first, five universities from Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Declaration, becoming new members of the alliance.

Signing Ceremony

Subsequently, Zhang Chi, Deputy Dean of the School of Tourism, BUU, briefed the rest attendees on the basic profile and development course of the “17+1” Tourism School Alliance, and presented in a video the fruitful achievements made by the alliance members through high-performance bilateral and multilateral cooperation over the past three years. The representatives of 16 tourism schools from 7 countries including China, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia gave keynote speeches at the meeting and exchanged ideas with one another.

Before the meeting, Chinese Ambassador to Albania Zhou Ding met with the delegation. The delegation briefed Ambassador Zhou on the progress of BUU’s cooperation and exchanges with Albania, expressed thanks to the Embassy for its assistance and support to BUU, and discussed with Ambassador Zhou on the prospects and focus of further deepening China-Albania tourism education cooperation.