ChinaTravelNews - ITB Asia, the largest travel trade show in Asia, was staged this year from October 19 to October 21, 2016 in Singapore. The event was attended by 846 exhibitors, 895 buyer delegates and more than 10,000 trade visitors from 110 countries. On invitation by ITB Asia, TravelDaily China hosted a session on China’s outbound tourism and digital marketing in the morning of October 19. Senior executives of Chinese companies including Ctrip, Tujia, Baidu and Jin Jiang E-Commerce shared their views with an audience of more than 120 people during the session.
ITB Asia-TravelDaily China Session
Joseph Wang, CCO of TravelDaily China, noted that China’s outbound tourism and airline markets are still growing healthily, and Chinese tourists are showing new habits in travel planning and research. Mr. Wang cited a Phocuswright study that more than 50% of Chinese travelers research and plan travel on their smartphones and 22% use tablets for this. He also said that with China’s local and incoming carriers launching long-haul air routes in second-tier Chinese cities, marketing in these low-tier cities are also drawing the attention of many travel companies.
Joseph Wang, CCO of TravelDaily China
Jing Tu, general manager of Baidu Nuomi Hotel and Travel Department, said that Baidu’s platforms have product information and booking service for more than 500,000 hotels, and hoteliers can leverage Baidu’s platforms of mobile search, map and Nuomi group deals service to connect with Chinese consumers and satisfy their service needs through different channels. Ms Tu also said that the company is also leveraging its technology and tools such as map navigation, VR, voice recognition, cloud computing, facial recognition and personal assistant Duer to improve the experience in travel and accommodation.
Ctrip’s chief strategy officer Jenny Wu said that despite slower growth in China’s outbound tourism, the market dynamics are fundamentally unchanged thanks to the country’s urbanization and its growing middle-class consumer group. Destination choices are also evolving – China’s outbound traffic to the US market is growing at more than 50% while that to Russia and the Scandinavia are also increasingly rapidly, and Britain facing drastic depreciation of the sterling following the Brexit vote will become a new favorite for Chinese travelers.
From left to right: Ctrip's chief strategy officer Jenny Wu, Tujia’s co-founder and vice chairman Melissa Yang, Maritim Hotels' vice president of sales & marketing APAC Huilian Duan and Jin Jiang E-Commerce's vice president Joseph Xia
After the completion of the ITB Asia session, TravelDaily China will continue to bear witness to the innovation and global development of China’s travel and tourism industry, as the dialogue and cooperation between the travel trade in China and the rest of the world has been opened up. (Translated by Jerry)
