Internet giants issue Sichuan tourism reports

The fourth Global Travel E-commerce Conference held in Dujiangyan, Chengdu, included forums, city tours and the launch of a white paper to help participants learn about and discuss the worldwide development of online tourism.

On Sept 21, a national competition for tourism-related entrepreneurial projects was held during the GTEC2015. Of the eight projects in the final, three won the chance to discuss investment cooperation with venture capital funds.

The three projects were all developed by young Chengdu entrepreneurs.

Tourism, as one of the first traditional industries to offer Internet services, has many large and leading companies who have captured most of the market share.

Startups, therefore, should pay more attention to niche segments to respond to customers' diversified needs, if they want to survive and develop amid fierce market competition, organizers of competition said.

The top winner, meyouone.com, focuses on honeymoon travel and sells services mainly on Tmall, a leading Chinese shopping portal, and WeChat, an instant messaging app like Whatsapp.

Li Rui, founder of the company, said honeymooner's look to travel over various lengths of time and often have large budgets, so the company arranges services such as special cars, candlelit dinners and large honeymoon beds for couples.

In the first month after opening in December last year, the company earned profits of nearly 60,000 yuan ($9,429).

Li said Chengdu "has everything needed to start a business".

"Chengdu has high-quality human resources in information technology. It also has a good business environment and entrepreneurial atmosphere," he added.

During the three-day conference, some corporate representatives visited Qingcheng Mountain, one of the birthplaces of the Taoist religion.

On Sept 22, Liu Suibin, head of the Qingcheng faction of Taoism, took 12 people to practice tai chi at 7 am at the gate of the mountain. The participants included Tony D' Astolfo, general manager of Phocuswright, and Timothy Hughes, vice-president of Agoda's business development department.

They also visited Lidui Park, the panda base and the 2,200-year-old Dujiangyan irrigation system.

On Sept 23, Jones Lang LaSalle, an investment management company specializing in real estate, as well as Internet giants Baidu and Google independently issued their white papers on tourism.

JLL's white paper on tourism in west China analyzed consumer behaviors and demands, explored the local market features and discussed how to develop different tourist spots in different cities in the region.

Baidu's white paper on Sichuan tourism was based on the company's big data and said most searches for Sichuan's tourism are made between spring and autumn, and reach their peak in the summer. The paper said Sichuan now ranks fourth in a tourism search list of provinces and regions, after Beijing, Zhejiang and Shaanxi. Chengdu ranks 11th among Chinese cities for tourism, and its top five tourist spots netizens searched for are Dujiangyan, Jiuzhaigou Valley, Emei Mountain, Happy Valley and Qingcheng Mountain.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/29/2015 page10)