This is Hainan

On October 10, Sanya Mayor A Dong visited Cannes in France and signed a memorandum of cooperation with Cannes mayor David Lisnard to enhance friendly exchange. (Photo from Sanya Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports Bureau)

On October 10, Mr. A Dong, deputy secretary of the CPC Sanya Municipal Committee and mayor of Sanya Municipal Government, visited Cannes in France, and signed a memorandum of cooperation with Cannes mayor David Lisnard to enhance friendly exchange. The two cities will strengthen the mutual understanding and friendship, in a bid to develop cooperation in the areas like culture, celebrations, education and film.

Through deep discussion, the two sides have come to the consensus on following aspects. On cultural exchange, the two sides will exchange personnel to participant in the exhibitions such as the International Cultural Industry Fair held in Sanya and the photo exhibition held at the TRAVERSO cinema in Cannes. On celebration, the exchange will cover the popular festivals such as the music festival in the two cities. On film, the two sides will mutually support the development of each other's film festival. On education, they will conduct exchange activities for the students.

Founded in 1946, the Cannes International Film Festival has witnessed its 72nd session this year. The Hainan International Film Festival, a yearly cultural event approved by the Central Committee and organized by Hainan provincial government, will see its second session from December 1st to 8th this year. In the meeting, A Dong extended his sincere invitation to Cannes municipal government, with the hope that Mayor David Lisnard would lead a team to attend the Second Hainan International Film Festival, so as to discuss the further cooperation in the aspects of film shooting and making.

Cannes-Sanya Cultural Meeting on 10 October 2019. (Photo from Sanya Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports Bureau)

After the meeting, with the accompany of the personnel from Cannes Tourism Department, A Dong visited the movie base and museum under construction in Cannes, and then the two parties had a discussion about the tourism development and exchange. A Dong said that there are many similarities in the tourism resource of the two cities, as well as some differences in their climate and natural landscape. Both as tourism cities, there are some lessons that Sanya could learn from Cannes, especially in the aspects of reinforcing ecological protection, developing new tourism industry and holding big festival activities.

Laure Toma-Auneau, the person in charge of the leisure tourism section in Cannes Tourism Department, and Charlotte Cejudo, responsible for Chinese market, introduced the plan of Cannes tourism development and the strategy to develop Chinese tourist source market. Then the two sides went further to the discussion about the electronic music festival and the possibility to have "Cannes Beach Electronic Music Festival" to be held in Sanya, in order to attract international tourists to Sanya with large-scale international festival activities.