UN tourism forum attracts visitors to try local handcrafting activities

Neeraj Singh Dev made a special souvenir close to his heart during his trip to Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in mid-October.

The man, who works for Thomas Cook India, wrote his hometown name on a special stone commonly found on the banks of the Lijiang River.

"My hometown name is very long, so I wrote the short version of it," says the man from India.

He was intrigued to do so after instantly being attracted to Lijiang sand and stone paintings that depict the stunning scenery of Guilin at the 2024 UN Tourism/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook held from Friday to Sunday.

The event was organized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) and the Pacific Asia Travel Association, attracting 120 experts and representatives from 25 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia and Cambodia, who discussed consolidating tourism recovery in Asia.

They also explored cooperation under the application of digital technology and the integration of tradition and innovation while sharing the latest trends and future developments in the Asia-Pacific tourism industry.

"It uses the sand and stones from the riverbed as materials to construct distant landscapes, creating handcrafted scrolls of nature," says inheritor Luo Qian of the art form, which was named a Guilin municipal-level intangible cultural heritage in 2022.

The painting requires eight major steps and over 20 processes to complete, including sourcing materials, selecting stones, composing the design and assembling, Luo adds.

To endear the art form to more people, Luo developed an easy kit that offers a quick experience for creating the paintings.

Many works on display during the forum were based on the original size of the stones, upon which paintings were made. "We taught visitors how to create their own patterns," Luo says.