Located in the Sichuan Province, Chengdu is preparing to host this year’s World Routes forum. This will see over 3,100 delegates from 240 airlines, 470 airports and 80 tourism authorities coming to the city to potentially create brand new routes. World Routes was last held in China seven years ago, when the forum was hosted in Beijing.

Chengdu is one of the most important economic, financial and transportation centres in western China. The city is not just home to the giant panda, but to more than 270 Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, Intel and IBM. This year, Chengdu was voted the 12^th most liveable city in China by Sapore di Cina, citing Jiuzhaigou as one of the most breath-taking sites in the country.

The provincial capital of Sichuan province has been indentified as an important hub to improve air services to Wester Asia, the Middle East and Europe in China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative. This initiative has the potential to be the world’s largest platform for regional collaboration, which covers 65 percent of the world’s population.

The vast growth of Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport has seen passenger numbers rise by 40 percent in just three years. This is due in part to new international routes to the likes of Frankfurt, Melbourne and Doha. The fourth busiest airport in mainland China handled 42.2 million passengers in 2015 and are expected to handle 47 million this year.

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport is currently under construction, but will have the capacity handle 40 million passengers when the first building phases are complete. It will make Chengdu the third largest aviation hub in China after Beijing and Shanghai when it opens in 2020.

Aside from the hundreds of meetings that take place during the event, there is also a whole wealth of live content on offer to delegates. The Strategy Summit, taking place on Sunday 25 September, includes a keynote interview with Peter Bellew, CEO of Malaysia Airlines and a panel session looking at the state of the industry. This panel will feature Brian Hedberg, director of Office of International Aviation for the US Department of Transportation, André van der Berg, executive vice president and CCO of Schiphol Group and will be moderated by John Strickland, director of JLS Consulting.

The Tourism Summit on Monday 26 September will have a panel on aviation and tourism partnerships, moderated by Alfredo Gonzalez, vice president of sales and global development for Visit Florida. Presentations will be given by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Arlt on Chinese outbound tourism and Sarah Matthews on the impact of travel technology on destination marketing. Routes Talks are also on offer during both days.

Many of the world's major airlines will be represented at World Routes in Chengdu, including Air Asia, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Lufthansa and Qantas.