Online CIFTIS allows remote attendees to boost business

KUALA LUMPUR－Mint Leong entered her office on the outskirts of Malaysia's capital, an unusual occurrence for a Sunday.

Leong turned on her laptop and logged onto the official website of the China International Fair for Trade in Services, or CIFTIS, which was being held in Beijing.

Since the expo kicked off in Beijing on Sept 4, Leong, deputy president of the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association, has spent time looking for fresh opportunities.

More than 17,000 companies participated in this year's CIFTIS through Wednesday in Beijing. Organizers say over 2,000 companies have signed up as offline exhibitors, while more than 4,000 companies have showcased their products and services online.

"We have chosen some conferences and forums that were related to tourism," Leong said. "We watched the World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development the day earlier, during which speakers from different countries shared their experiences on their governments' respective policies to alleviate the impact by the COVID-19 outbreak on the tourism industry.

"The conferences also shed some light on the future prospects of our industry," she said. "It has been very fruitful for us, so we kept discussing it for the past two days."

Even though Leong could not be physically present in Beijing to participate in the CIFTIS herself, the scale of the expo was nonetheless palpable.

"It covered literally every aspect of services. For the tourism industry, the exhibition also touches on other aspects like culture. There are so many exhibitors that we didn't know of before," she said during this year's CIFTIS.

Clicking her way through the website, she came across a winter sports section, one of the exhibition's themes.

"Despite not having many winter sports here in Malaysia, this could be an opportunity for us," Leong said. "Beijing is hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. If someone from Malaysia wants to watch the Games, they would need tourism services like hotel and ticketing."

Leong said she found a few companies to reach out to.

"We would like to get in touch with those that could bring potential opportunities for us, something innovative that we are not familiar with, like big data," she said.

"Our business is closely linked with China, so we need to understand the trend there and catch up," she added.

Xinhua