50 high net worth Chinese guests, selected out of 250 registered applicants, attended the 3 hour workshop at Beijing’s Parkson Department Store VIP salon.

The guests learned about independent travel in Europe including rail travel, low cost airlines and self drive holidays. They found out about Eurostar’s services and convenient connection between London, Paris and Brussels.

All guests participated in a lucky draw to win flight tickets to Europe and return tickets in any direction on Eurostar.

ChinaContact has been providing market entry services for nearly five years and has developed an extensive network of contacts in China. The technology tour is intended for a small group of people visiting Beijing, Tianjin, Xian, Hangzhou and Shanghai. They will meet innovators and leaders in China’s tech & internet sectors and visit some of the most exciting, fast growing companies in China. Social events will allow the group to get to know local entrepreneurs and investors better. This tour is planned around entrepreneurs who are thinking of China as their next big market and want to understand the environment first-hand and/or looking for local partners that can help them with aspects of their business development.

For a true understading of the culture, they will visit some of the best tour attractions in China such as the Great Wall near Beijing, Terracotta Warriors in Xian and West Lake in Hangzhou.

ChinaContact MD Roy Graff is a veteran of China’s tourism industry with a focus on online travel and e-commerce. He lived in Shanghai and Beijing and traveled around China extensively. He will personally be leading this tour. This is a fantastic opportunity to enjoy direct and undiluted contact with fresh minds in China to see how much we have in common and how much we can learn from each other. An added option open to the group is to continue to the Hawaii Technology Week retreat in November.

Confirmed China partners (more will be announced soon):

• Sam Flemming, Founder, CiC: China focused Internet Word of Mouth (i.e. blog and BBS message board) research and consulting firm.
• George Godula, Co-founder, Web2Asia: Internet Entrepreneur and Marketing professiona based in Shanghai.
• Kai Liang, Co-Founder and Acting Chairman at Coordinate Technologies Communication Ltd
• Sage Brennan, MobileMonday Shanghai – mobilemondayshanghai.net. Telecoms Consultant with 10 years of China experience.
• Kaiser Kuo, advisor to several Chinese Internet startups, including consulting work for China’s leading Internet video site, Youku.com.
• Toni Piech, Founder, Piech Asia Enterprises: Beijing based business incubator that develops “home-grown” start up companies in which it aims to retain a majority stake.

Media partner: TechCrunch Europe

To learn more and apply for a place on the tour, visit http://techtour.chinacontact.co.uk

What this means is that Western companies and destinations need to get smarter in how they market and sell travel services in China. It used to be the case that simply becoming an approved destination (ADS) was enough to start getting tour groups, and a photo-op with a Chinese government leader got you all the business you needed. This is no longer true. Consumers shop around, research destinations online and share experiences with others that have been on chat rooms and web forums.

When it comes to travel within China, things have also changed almost beyond recognition. The Chinese invested heavily in infrastructure while entrepreneurs built countless hotels, resorts and other services for travellers. This has indeed led to increased cost of travel but at the same time opened up more destinations and made travel in China more accessible.

The fast pace of development has created problems, ranging from overcrowding to corruption and environmental damage. There are ways to manage this growth in a sustainable way and China can and indeed often does learn from other experienced and mature tourist destinations to figure out the best way forward.

Since 2006, I have directed the WTM-ChinaContact forum each year in November as a way of raising awareness in the West of what China means in the tourism world and how more Western organisations and companies can benefit from the emergence of a dynamic travel market in China. It has been a cornerstone of the forum from the beginning that tourism development with China must be a bi-lateral and bi-directional collaboration as this is the preferred way of doing business in China in any sector.

My vision is to motivate more companies to formulate a sound strategy for China engagement and bring the two sides together to exchange ideas and information. The support we’ve received from the national tourism boards of both the United Kingdom and China is proof that they recognize the importance of the effort. For the past two years our expert speakers and panellists have provided an insight into the operation of successful West/China business cooperation and shared practical advise with delegates. I was pleased to see in the forum delegates not only from the UK and Western Europe but from the US, North Africa, Middle East and Australia.

In 2008, we will continue bringing more examples of successful business relationships between Chinese and Western tourism organizations and give advice and help to companies on things like product development, relationship building, cultural awareness, sales and marketing.

One area that needs to be carefully studied is the use of online media in China, since it is so different from the West. Understanding the differences and harnessing the power of this new media is crucial to success in China. Conversely, Chinese destinations wishing to market themselves in the West need assistance and guidance on working with media channels in the West.

This year, China has been featuring prominently in the headlines so it is unavoidable that more people are taking an interest. The Olympics Games provided a window into China that can now be used to develop more tourism business. At the same time, the experience of these Olympic Games gives us several important lessons when it comes to targeting consumers in China or thinking of sending our clients there – be it leisure, business or incentives.

I selected a range of speakers that can bring their experience to bear on these topics. They are not simply representatives of companies engaged in tourism with China, they are individuals who themselves made in-roads into this market and proved that the Chinese tourism industry is healthy and profitable.

The WTM-ChinaContact forum is a chance for those involved in tourism to find out the real situation of China’s tourism industry and understand how the opportunities in the market can be applied to their business. Destinations will learn the best marketing methods; tour operators will hear examples of successful market penetration and learn how to forge close links with partners in China; travel agents will discover exciting opportunities for new travel products in China. This event comes only once a year. In 2008, as economic uncertainty surrounds us, we must look ahead and go where the market can bring us the best return on investment. For those that know how to play the game, this place is increasingly called ‘China’.
—————————————————————————————–
Roy Graff is Managing Director of ChinaContact and a recognized expert on China’s tourism industry. He counsels tourism destinations and travel/hospitality companies on market access, marketing and sales strategy. Roy spent three years in China in senior business development roles for a leading multinational tour operator. He launched ChinaContact in 2005.

To learn more about the WTM-ChinaContact forum visit http://www.future-of-travel.org or call +44 20 32399688