Held at the historical Shanghai Exhibition Centre, the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) Asia remains China’s most valuable trade show for the high-end and luxury travel market. From 1^st to 4^th June 2015, China Edge will be at this event, representing our clients to 500 travel agents, personal travel designers, OTAs and private clubs organizers from all over Asia, including Greater China.

The most professionally organised B2B event in China. ILTM allows brands the unique opportunity to penetrate this extremely insular sector, as well as to discover what they can do to improve their appeal to potential Chinese clients. The invitation only nature of the event guarantees the quality of buyers attending, and China Edge’s previous experience at this event means we know the best customers and contacts for your brand, saving you time and money.

China Edge offers two packages for this event:

Package A: China Edge will help you with event booking and management; you send your own representatives. This package includes:

• Event briefing
• A professional interpreter for the 4 days
• Qualified buyer meetings arranged by us
• Exhibitor registration formalities
• Exhibitor’s logo (max. 70cm*90cm )
• Exhibitor’s stand with mineral water and snacks

Package B: Full representation by China Edge. This package includes:

• Full 4-day representation by dedicated members of the ChinaContact team
• China Edge brochure placement
• Pre-event promotion to trade
• Detailed reports on all buyer meetings
• Press release to the trade
• One month post event assistance

Early bird deadline for both packages is 29th November and the standard deadline 31st of January 2015.

Click here for more information about our packages

For more information and detailed quotes, please contact: Manuela Barba

London: +44 2071 934 873

E-mail : info@chinaedge.co.uk

Website : www.chinaedge.co.uk

ILTM Asia is the most professionally organized B2B trade show in China at the moment, with a clear focus on luxury travel. It attractsinternational exhibitors, many of which also exhibit at ILTM in Cannes. The vast majority of the exhibitors are hotels. Chain hotels exhibit in an exclusive hall and independent hotels are mostly represented by marketing companies. Tourism boards of several countries were present, namely Britain, Italy, France, Switzerland, USA, New Zealand, Singapore. There was noticeable absence of some destinations that previously attended the show, such as Australia and UAE.

In the experience of our clients that we represented at the event, 80% of the appointments were relevant to their service offering, and a number of the agents requested follow up with specific brands.

On the opening day, a series of talks were arranged for the attendees with the most popular being the workshop run  byHurun Report about the Chinese luxury traveller. The opening forum, while heavily focused on China, provided presentations from speakers that did not shed new light on the fast changing China luxury outbound market. They were either extremely general and high-level or presented dry statistics and numbers about social media that were not helpful in providing practical advice to the visitors on customer engagement. We would hope to see in 2015 a more relevant set of speakers at the forum, that can shed a light on the behaviour of Chinese tourists, how to engage with them and how to win their loyalty.

The exhibition days were quite busy with full schedule of appointments, and the vast majority were targeted (in the case of our clients, the interest was in Chinese buyers, though the event targets all of Asia including Australia, Russia, and India).

The evenings were filled with a large number of hosted parties that were very useful for networking and continuing discussions from the morning sessions, since the scheduled appointments were just 15 minutes long, not enough to discuss actual business.

ChinaContact intends to participate in next year’s ILTM with a larger stand, representing a number of our clients as a way of quickly introducing new entrants to the travel industry in China and cementing relationships for companies present in the market.

“Sending A Child Abroad To Study Is Considered The Ultimate Luxury Purchase”

Source: Jing Daily

An under-tapped network of luxury influencers

“Even the laziest of luxury industry observers could not fail to notice the unbridled increase in spending power of the collective Chinese luxury traveler in recent years.

More than 50 percent of China luxury purchases are made while traveling abroad, and this roving pack of luxury hoarders has become the key differentiator of growth between major prestige brands: brands with significant presence on the High Streets of China’s major cities have benefited the most. In Europe, tourists (predominantly those from Asia) account for between 35 and 60 percent of luxury sales,according to HSBC.

But the less-talked-about, and arguably more influential…Read the Full Article on Jing Daily Here 

Author: Sage Brennan

chinaluxuryadvisors.com

Roy Graff at the Hurun Report Conference (22 Jan. 2014)

The Hurun Report Conference, sponsored by Bank of China  was the place to be to hear about the latest, and fast-changing  trends in Chinese High Net Worth Individuals. The event aimed at introducing to UK brands the opportunities and challenges of this growing market.  Experts in  media, business and tourism, all focusing on China, covered topics that ranged from legal and wealth management to luxury retail, education and tourism. 

Roy Graff was a guest speaker and panel chair on the luxury Chinese outbound travel market . He presented his insights on the profile, the motivation and the expectation of the luxury Chinese visitor and provided targeted advice to brands on the best ways to reach, welcome and cater these wealthy customers. Click here to see Roy’s presentation online. 

Chopsticks Club Press release :

At a business conference on 22 January, in the heart of the City of London and hosted by the Bank of China (UK) Ltd, senior executives gathered together to discuss whether London was ready to service the global aspirations of China’s ultra-wealthy. Partnered by Hurun Report – Shanghai-based publisher of the China ‘Rich List’ – and Chopsticks Club, a professional China-focussed networking group, themes of the day covered London’s attractiveness for property, investment and immigration options as well as a destination for consumer experiences and luxury travel.

Roy Graff and his panel

According to Rupert Hoogewerf, Founder and Chairman of Hurun Report, the ambition of these ultra-rich Chinese, is to “be remembered as legends.” In addition, referencing the newly published 2014 Hurun Report Survey, Hoogewerf said that 29% of rich Chinese look to the UK as the number 1 destination for independent school education, beating the US at 26% and that London now ranks number four on the preferred places to buy property after the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Consequently, these self-made multi-millionaires, whose average age is now 53, are moving from an entrepreneur to an investor phase and this is good news for London-based property firms like Knight Frank, who sponsored today’s event, and law and wealth management firms who are well-placed with an established legal and tax framework, to service the global ambitions of these Chinese business people.

“As leading Chinese bank in the UK, Bank of China recognises the needs and the challenges of immigrants moving to the UK,” said Madam Xiao, Chief Retail Banking Officer at Bank of China (UK) Ltd. “We can help them, via our integrated Wealth Management Services, better understand UK life, its culture, business and financial environment…and ensure that they are properly equipped to make a comfortable start in the UK.”

James Kynge, Associate Editor at the FT and Principal of China Confidential and one of the guest speakers, shared insight into a recently published survey on outbound travel trends from a cross-section of Chinese society. According to the survey, respondents ranked the UK as the number 2 intended travel destination for 2014. Mr Kynge also noted that over 160million Chinese are avid fans of Downton Abbey, using it to perfect their English pronunciation.

According to Susie Killbourn, Group Services Director for Value Retail, the company that owns Bicester Village, Bicester Village is gearing up to compete on the luxury and hospitality experience side of travel and tourism by working together to promote the best that London has to offer. According to Ms Killbourn, an astonishing “8 out of 10 of every Chinese visitor to the UK last year, visited Bicester Village for shopping”.

General Networking Buzz at Next Stop London for Chinese HNWI? Conference

“This event was insightful, informative and amazing,” said one senior executive who attended the conference, “but it shows how little we really know and how much more there is to do to service these people.”

To ensure that London is an attractive next stop for China’s high net worth individuals, it would seem that whilst culture, heritage, education and property are huge draws for the Chinese, there is much work still to be done to encourage Chinese legends to be made in London by servicing the expectations and creating luxury experiences that suit the ambition of this increasingly sophisticated group of entrepreneurs.

ENDS

Press release produced by Chopsticks Club
Contact:
H-J Colston (Ms)
Director – Chopsticks Club
Mobile: +44 (0)7881 935412
Email: hjcolston@chopsticksclub.com
Twitter @chopsticksclub #chineseinlondon
LinkedIn: Chopsticks Club

About Hurun
According to Wall Street Journal US Edition, “people often aren’t considered truly rich until anointed
by Hurun Report.” The Shanghai Authorities gave Rupert Hoogewerf, Founder & Chairman of Hurun
Report, the Magnolia Award in 2009, the Shanghai government’s highest honour bestowed upon
foreigners.

About Chopsticks Club
Chopsticks Club, founded in 1993, is a bi-cultural networking group, passionate about China. The
Club’s networking events, China-skills recruitment events and mandarin learning promote bi-lateral
links, dialogue and understanding with China through education, business and culture. The Club’s
network of over 4000 individuals, 50% of whom are Chinese, provides a wealth of insight in China’s
transformation and the changing business landscape since the start of China’s meteoric rise. For
further information about the Club, please visit www.chopsticksclub.com

ILTM Asia 2014 will take place from the 2nd to the 5^th June in Shanghai. It is an opportunity for suitable businesses to expand their activities to the Asia Pacific region and reach the new wave of High-Net-Worth Chinese tourists.

ChinaContact has been facilitating  market entry to China since 2005, and has carefully designed packages to maximise the benefits of participating at ILTM and wining a share of the luxury outbound travel business from China and Asia. The services offer many potent benefits such as social media marketing  prior to the show, expert pre-qualification of  buyers for one to one meetings, translation services, experienced interpreters, management of all collateral localisation and much more.

Click here to read more about this event and our services.

China Edge, the UK luxury retail and hospitality training and marketing group for the Chinese consumer market into the UK, held its second workshop on Wednesday 6 November at Getty Images Gallery in London.
The workshop, sponsored by Getty Images Gallery and Perrier Jouet Champage, focused on the Chinese luxury consumer demographics and purchasing behaviour.

China Edge Founding Director Roy Graff delivered the keynote with a strategic overview delivered by China Edge Director Jeremy Gordon and a Q&A panel chaired by China Edge Director Yu Sun. The panel included Helen Peters, Senior Tourism Manager of Bicester Village, Sylvie Chen, former Director of Marketing at Sunshine BCD Travel Taiwan and Roy Graff who is also MD of ChinaContact and formerly FIT Regional Manager and Ecommerce Director China at Gullivers Travel Associates.

Panel Q&A at China Edge 6-Nov Workshop

The workshop was attended by a sold out audience of marketing, sales and brand senior professionals from the UK and also Belgium, Bulgaria and other countries. Companies in attendance included Harrods, Rank Group, Visa, VisitBritain, Burberry, Birmingham Airport, London and Partners, the Leisure Pass Group, Estee Lauder, the Savoy Hotel among others.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive as to the detailed and practical content delivered that helps retailers and hospitality providers segment, target and engage with the new wave of wealthy, independent Chinese visitors to the UK.

For a full report and images from this workshop and previous events, visit www.chinaedge.co.uk. 

To purchase a copy of the presentation, please contact China Edge by email. 

In the afterglow of China’s National Day “golden week” of holiday shopping, George Osborne has announced changes to the visa application process for Chinese coming to the UK, making it a more attractive option.

Chinese are now the largest consumers of luxury in the world, but over 60 percent of their spending happens outside China – and the UK has an opportunity to capture a larger share of the market. The average Chinese visitor to the UK is reported to spend around £8,000, so a significant increase in visitor numbers could represent a windfall for well-prepared British brands.

“The visa reform is a long-awaited step that British industry has been lobbying on for years”, according to Roy Graff, Director of China Edge Ltd., and a China outbound travel specialist. But Graff feels it does not go far enough: “While it can help stimulate more business travel from China by offering priority, 24-hour visa processing (for a fee), I would call for the government to align itself with the Schengen visa application process in the EU, and also offer extended, multiple-entry visas to business travellers and other key groups”.

The changes to the UK visa regime come hot on the heels of changes to China’s own Tourism Law, which came into force on October 1, and regulates how operators manage activities including shopping – and related commissions. Tour operators will have to review and adapt their offers so as to abide this new law, and particularly Article 35, which states: “Travel agencies are prohibited from organizing tourism activities and luring tourists with unreasonably low prices, or getting illegitimate gains such as rebates by arranging shopping or providing tourism services that requires additional payment.”

Chinese tour operators face disruption to their normal business processes, and some traditionally popular destinations, which rely on commission-based shopping, may see a fall-off in visitors While operators seek to adapt to the new reality, there is an added opportunity for the UK to pick up on the existing demand for high-end shopping by leveraging improvements to the visa application process, and by getting brands to better engage and serve Chinese customers.

“There is much more that British luxury brands can do to effectively target, engage and serve the global Chinese consumer”, according to Jeremy Gordon of China Edge. Gordon notes that “few British brands take a strategic and structured approach to the Chinese consumer in the UK, as most have been focused on the country rather than the customer”.

According to Gordon, brands should review their strategy and the relevance of their offering for Chinese visitors, build engagement with outbound tour operators and through Chinese social media, and also enhance in-store services and training.

These issues are hot topics among brands and luxury shopping destinations in London and around the UK, and will be addressed during World Travel Market, in London in November, by China Edge, at their “Engage with Chinese Tourists” seminar on 6 November, at the Getty Gallery in London.

Notes to editors:

Download word version here

• Event Details:
  • Engaging with Chinese Tourists – overview of the China tourism sector and implications of the new Tourism Law
  • Date: November 6, 8:00-11:00am
  • Location: The Getty Gallery, London.
  • Registration is £50 + VAT/booking fee
  • Event booking site: https://chinaedge071113-pr.eventbrite.co.uk
• China Edge:
  • China Edge is a collaboration of sector experts with a wealth of experience in China including:
    • Jeremy Gordon, a strategy consultant;
    • Roy Graff, a marketing specialist;
    • Yu Sun, a cross-cultural trainer;
    • Arnold Ma, a digital media specialist;
    • Michaela Wolf, a luxury marketing specialist.
  • For a company introduction, and previous conference content, please see here: http://www.chinaedge.co.uk 
• Contact:
  • Jeremy Gordon: Tel: 07718588713; jeremy@ChinaEdge.co.uk