Metro

World hopes Chinese will stop for visit, spend money

By Liu Yujie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-28 08:00

A woman (right) asks about a plastic surgery tour to South Korea at the tourism exhibition. Wang Jing / China Daily

Companies court city travelers at exhibition

The Chinese tourism industry is set to boom in the next few years, according to participants at the Beijing International Tourism Expo and North China Travel Fair 2010.

The event was held at the old China International Exhibition Center Halls from Friday to Sunday and attracted representatives from a wide range of tourism destinations and attractions, as well as travel-related goods and services for the Chinese tourism market.

The three-day event occupied 33,000 sq m of exhibition space and featured 700 local and international exhibitors from 85 countries and regions.

Many of the international companies taking part had participated in the event before, including companies from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany and Morocco.

And Greece is maintaining its "Partner Country" status for the upcoming Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) 2010 in order to try to woo Chinese travelers, despite its current financial crisis.

"We are emphasizing certain segments, such as luxury tourism, honeymoon tourism, yachting and sailing, diving tourism and, most importantly, cultural tourism for Chinese travelers," said Angelos Vlachos, a spokesperson from the Greece National Tourism Organization (GNTO).

For the fifth year, Greece took up a sizeable area at the event to showcase the attractions in the Hellenic country.

This year, Greece hosted a Mediterranean-style cocktail party in its 200-sq-m space while a Greek singer entertained visitors.

BITE, this year, welcomed, for the first time, exhibits from the Netherlands, Libya, Mexico, Kenya and Yemen.

"We are exhibiting for the first time after getting positive feedback from visiting BITE in previous years," said a spokesman from the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions.

"We hope to gain more valuable trade and business contacts, which will hopefully lead to potential business engagements and opportunities."

Trina Teo, marketing communications executive with CEMS, the Singaporean company in charge of the event, said BITE 2010 was expected to draw 30,000 serious visitors from China and around the world. And the total trade volume coming from the event was estimated at 3 billion yuan this year, some 500 million yuan more than last year.

According to a report from the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism is set to expand in the Chinese market because of the economic development of the nation.

Chinese tourism is likely to move from being the fourth-largest market to second by 2018. China's consumption of travel products and services is predicted to increase four-fold during the same period.

"I believe the impact of a strong Chinese tourism industry will have a positive overall effect on the world tourism industry because it will offset the weak performance from mature markets such as the United States and Europe," said Feng Hui, media manager of Switzerland Tourism.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/28/2010 page27)