Chinese travellers are a strong force to reckon with all over the globe. Boosted by a rising Chinese currency, they are now the top source of tourism cash in the world.

China’s outbound tourism growth over the last decade has been nothing short of phenomenal. Chinese international tourism spend has more than tripled since the US$73 billion recorded in 2011, reaching US$261 billion in 2016. CLSA anticipates Chinese tourists will continue spending overseas to reach US$429 billion in 2021.

While Chinese travellers have long outgrown the need to shop on a holiday due to increased availability of international goods on the mainland, they still look for new experiences, while keeping safety in mind. For instance, CLSA’s 2017 findings indicate that events such as the terrorist attacks in Europe and political instability on the Korean peninsula highly impacted their travel choices.

In light of these statistics, it becomes imperative for tourism boards, travel companies and OTAs to up the ante and attract more Chinese tourists to their region – from having a website in the native language, to establishing partnerships with local Chinese agencies, and some major online blitzkrieg.

There has been a boom in the digital era in China. Internet in China is increasing its influence and online communication has now become almost mandatory. With a low initial investment, measurable ROI, and a wide range of media, all these make online promotion a big factor in the Chinese tourism sector. Using quality Multimedia is also an effective tool. For example, New Zealand conducted a major operation in digital communications and succeeded in attracting many Chinese tourists to its country. Social media is another huge travel influencer when it comes to the Chinese people. The major part of Chinese Internet users spend time on social networks like WeChat and Weibo, two very powerful tools that help your brand spread the core message to millions of users.

At the recently concluded Beijing International Travel Mart (BITM), TravHQ spoke to Asheri Kiisay, Managing Director at Acacia Farm Lodge, a luxury country lodge in Tanzania, about the country, how to meet the expectations of the Chinese traveller and what destinations can do to attract them via social media.

The event witnessed panel discussions by domain experts from all over the world to deliver actionable insights and offer a peek into how travel trends vary across geographies.

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Xi’an Silk Road International Tourism Expo 2016 (XSRITE) kicked off with a grand opening ceremony on 26 August 2016. The three-day tourism exhibition will be held at Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Xi’an from 26 to 28 August 2016.

Among the audience were Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province Wang Lixia, Secretary of State for Tourism and Deputy Minister Pak Sokhom, Deputy Director of China National Tourism Administration Du Jiang, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Paddy Withana, Director of Mauritanie National Office of Tourism Mohamed Mahmoud, Assistant Deputy Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia Adila Chaerman. The Opening Ceremony took place on the stage and each country where the exhibitors originated were represented by the flags lining both sides of the stage.

“In five years, the countries along the “One belt, one road” can look forward to hosting 150 million Chinese tourists with a total spending of 200 billion US Dollars. We are also confident that China will receive 850 billion tourists from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road, spending 110 billion US Dollars in China,” said Du Jiang in his address to the audience.

Wang Lixia welcomed expressed her gratitude to the China National Tourism Administration for its support in the “One belt, One road” initiative.

In total, more than 600 exhibitors and 400 hosted buyers from 42 countries and 26 local provinces took part in the exhibition. The organisers also expect 4,000 trade visitors and 50,000 public visitors to liven up the exhibition.

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The global players in travel industry are looking at the travel market in Asia to expand their footprint. WTTC predicts China to be one of the markets that will experience the strongest growth. As a large number of young Chinese travellers have started stepping out of international borders, various destinations try to lure them. This also makes the market a huge opportunity for brands to capture the attention of Chinese outbound travellers.

BITE or Beijing International Tourism Expo, the annual travel and tourism event hosted by CEMS will bring the local and international travel providers under one roof. This would allow them to forge new business partnerships and explore mutual growth opportunities. The event attracts thousands of exhibitors and buyers from different geographies to interact with each other. Their buyer recruitment team utilises their extensive database to find suitable pairings between the exhibitors and buyers.

Destinations marketers also use the event as a platform to educate the travel trade community and showcase what the place has to offer the travellers. Last year, Kerala Tourism participated in the event for the first time and received amazing response. After successfully giving the arrivals from Europe a boost, China was the next target market for the destination and BITE offered the right starting point.

China highly regards the importance of tourism in the growth of its economy and that is why the nation has been establishing partnerships with other nations to catalyse the flow of travellers across international boundaries. Moving ahead in the same direction, this year’s event will be even bigger in scale and will be hosted as a part of the inaugural World Tourism Development Conference organised by China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

Along with the business and networking activities, BITE 2016 will have an array of other activities laid out as well. Leaders from China’s Tourism Industry will share their knowledge with the participants through seminars and leadership talks. Destinations will also add more flavour to the event with cultural programs. On-site contests and activities will be hosted to keep the visitors engaged.

BITE 2016 will be hosted at National Agriculture Exhibition Center from May 20 to May 22, 2016. To find more details or to sign up for the event, visit www.bitechina.com.

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