The International Tourism Alliance of Silk Road Cities (“the Alliance”) was launched in 2023 by the China Center of International Cultural Exchange and Tourism Promotion (formerly known as the “NICE”), directly under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, in partnership with well-known tourism cities worldwide. This initiative figures among the measures to “enhance people-to-people exchanges”— one of the Eight Major Steps China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, as announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

In the spirit of “peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and reciprocity” embodied by the Silk Road, the Alliance is an inclusive international tourism cooperation mechanism that works by conducting, among other activities, annual mayors’ meetings, professional forums, business talks, and joint promotions. It is designed to enhance friendly exchange and programmatic cooperation in tourism between its Member Cities, thus fueling a shared inbound tourism growth and tourism upgrading, and contributing to realizing the Global Development Initiative and the Global Civilization Imitative. As of September 2026, a total of 89 well-known tourism cities from 38 countries have joined the Alliance.