WTM Vision Conference Beijing was successfully held On April 13, 2015. Senior officials of tourism authorities from China and many foreign destinations, ambassadors, tourism counselors as well as directors of foreign tourism bureaus in China came all the way to attend the conference for sharing the platform with senior executives of Chinese tour operators, tourism “Gurus” and successful new bred OTAs to discuss the latest findings and development of travel & tourism industry both to and from China, which really benefited to over 160 present Chinese Tour operators and professionals.

 

 

China Business Network (CBN), as well as its awarded winning outbound travel portal CBN Travel &MICE and World Travel Online, has given great support to the World Travel Mart (WTM) to organize Vision Conferences in China for four consecutive years. Dr. Adam Wu, COO of CBN as the Conference Moderator, shared his 18 years’ experience of attending WTM. He also noted that WTM was one of the best tourism exhibitions he had ever attended and the Vision Conference was worth attending since it acted as a high standard tourism event that identified the industrial trends.

 

 

Mr. Vincent Lhoste, Senior Projects Director for the whole Leisure Travel Portfolio of Reed Exhibitions, warmly welcomed VIPs, Speakers and delegates to the WTM Vision Conference. He delivered the opening speech with deep feelings by saying “It is great to see such a packed room for the fourth WTM Vision Conference that we’ve held in China. We had a very successful conference in Shanghai last year and very happy to be back in the wonderful city of Beijing for 2015. Today’s conference will give you the latest research and insight into the Chinese travel industry from some of its most senior executives and organisations.”

 

 
Visitors from and to china seek out smaller destinations and in-depth experiences are welcomed by Chinese visitors
 
The conference focused on visitors from and to china seek out smaller destinations and in-depth experiences. In 2014, China became the biggest outbound travel market with a number of 109 million tourists, which exceeded the point of 100 million for the first time in history. By 2020, the population of the upper-middle class in China is expected to rise to a number of 40 million, which may lead to an important growth in domestic travel market. During the golden week last year, over 40 million domestic tourists left the big cities for a two-day excursion to other smaller destinations.

 

 

Dr. Jiang Yiyi, International Director of China Tourism Academy, pointed out that compared to traditional ways of traveling, in-depth tour became an important trend in global tourism because tourists nowadays would rather to seek for some rich travel experiences, such as culture and traditions.

 

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt FRGS, Director of COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, also expressed that “In a fast developing, peer group-orientated source market like China demand creation is easier, but needs new approaches, such as a visit to Northern Europe in June which enjoys a daytime for 17 hours and wine-tasting tours to Portugal, Spain and France, to allure the tourists from China.”

 

 

Chinese tourists were accustomed to shopping abroad. According to the data from World Tourism Organization, in 2014, the spending overseas of Chinese people reached USD 1650 billion and the sales with tax rebates caused by them rose 29% compared to the same period in 2013 , which made China the biggest market for sales with tax rebates except for European Union. Both the purchasing power of Chinese people and the number of their outbound tourists ranked first in the world.

 

Dr. Jiang Yiyi, International Director of China Tourism Academy analysed the trend of China outbound travel	Mr. Mark Israel, Chief Executive of Value Retail Management China was deliverding a speech at the conference

 

“With tourism figures predicted to rise 3.3% year-on-year until 2030,” Mr. Mark Israel, Chief Executive of Value Retail Management China, said, “s hopping will become more important to private and public sectors looking to drive tourism into their region.”

 

 

Ms. Pam Inmanm, President of National Tour Association and American Hotel & Lodging Association, Ms. Maria Cristina Rivadeneira, Undersecretary of Market of the Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador, and Ms. Heather Harries, Director of Marketing and Communications Directorate of Sharjah made analysis from different points of view on how smaller can destinations prepare for attracting more Chinese visitors and what China can do to attract more visitors to destinations, attractions and services off the beaten track.

 

  

2015 WTM is scheduled to be held during 2-5 November in London. We look forward to meeting you again and together creating a bright future for the industry.