The 2019 China International Travel Mart concluded yesterday in Kunming, Yunnan province. The three-day event, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the provincial government of Yunnan, welcomed representatives and exhibitors from 75 countries and regions.
It was founded in 1998 and has grown into one of the largest and most influential tourism fairs in the Asia-Pacific region.
Vivian Wu, experienced online travel business professional from the United States has been abuzz meeting her Chinese suppliers and discovering opportunities in the event.
She has been working in the online hotel business since 2004 and began expanding her business in 2015 for TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor is an American travel and restaurant website company that shows hotel and restaurant reviews, accommodation bookings and other travel-related content which also includes interactive travel forums. It is considered to be the world’s largest social travel website offering free services to users.
Wu, regional manager of China TripAdvisor, exclaims how China’s online travel industry has grown rapidly, recognizing the huge potential the country has from the local tour operators and consumer booking behavior perspective.
TripAdvisor has joined hands with China’s largest online travel agency, Trip.com Group Limited in November gunning for global expansion, content and governance agreements. The company owns and operates Trip.com, Skyscanner, and Ctrip.com, all of which are online travel agencies.
Wu further expressed that she is on the lookout for potential targeted suppliers to understand latest market trends of Chinese tourism apart from catching up with their existing suppliers all over China.
She has recently discovered that traditional tour operators start to prioritize online business as such entities begin to express strong desire to cooperate with online travel agencies.
Lou Shugang, Minister of Culture and Tourism shares how tourism has become an important factor in global economic growth. The country’s cultural and tourism departments will continue to work on expanding industrial scale, promoting international cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation to provide more opportunities for all countries.
