The China Day 2012 was successfully held last Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd November 2012 at the Axelborg Conference Center in Copenhagen (Denmark).
The
conference was a joint initiative of the European Travel Commission
(ETC), the European Commission (EC), VisitDenmark, Wonderful
Copenhagen and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as part of the
ambitious initiative of ETC to develop a long-term Destination Europe
2020 strategy in partnership with the European Commission.
The
aim of this initiative was to present the characteristics of the
Chinese travel market and to highlight its importance for Europe.
With the participation of representatives of the European and Chinese
public and private tourism sector, the China Day conference offered a
unique opportunity to understand and learn from travel experts about
how to develop tourism offers for the Chinese market and to foster
Euro-Chinese cultural exchange.
An
inspirational conference with high-profile speakers
Mr.
Peter de Wilde, Ad Interim President of ETC, opened the conference by
greeting the over hundred delegates representing local and national
tourism offices, airlines, hotel chains and other tourism companies.
In their opening speeches, Ms. Julie Russell, expert of the Tourism
Policy Unit of the European Commission, emphasized the importance of
EC and ETC joint activities to promote Europe as a tourism
destination in long-haul markets, while Mr. Márcio Favilla Lucca de
Paula, Executive Director for Competitiveness, External Relations and
Partnerships of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), reported on
impressive growth in number of arrivals and expenditure generated by
Chinese travel market.
The
Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Denmark, Li Ruiyu,
closed the opening session with a revealing speech on the
difficulties that Chinese tourists willing to visit Europe have to
affront such as visa restrictions, language barriers and insecurity,
among others.
The
afternoon session kicked off with the presentation of the studies on
the Chinese Outbound Travel Market and on the Chinese travelers’
Blogosphere, jointly produced by ETC and UNWTO, which dragged
attention on some key aspects such as market trends, characteristics
of the operating environment, accessibility and booking channels. The
innovative nethnographic study portrayed Chinese travellers as
pictured in the footprint they leave in social media. This session
was followed by a panel discussion with members of the European
Commission, UNWTO, the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) and
European Cities Marketing (ECM).
“I
find particularly interesting the huge opportunity that the Chinese
market represents but at the same time our lack of knowledge about
the behaviour of Chinese travellers” said Mr. Eduardo Santander,
Executive Director of ETC, during the opening of the second session
and introduced Ms. Julie Russell (EC), who illustrated the European
Commission’s initiatives to boost industry relations between Europe
and China in the tourism sector. Ms. Valeria Croce, Research and
Development Manager of ETC, highlighted the competitive positioning
of Europe on the Chinese Market. This was followed by the specific
experiences of Amsterdam and Copenhagen analysing the Chinese travel
market and marketing their cities in China. Dr. Michael Frenzel,
Chief Executive Officer of TUI AG, talked about the strategy of the
German tour operator for the Chinese market. The China Day 2012 ended
with a panel discussion on the industry perspective of accessing the
Chinese travel market based on the experiences of airlines and
tax-free shopping companies.
Targeting
the Chinese travel market
China
is world’s fastest growing outbound travel market and will continue
growing over the coming two decades. Thanks to rapid urbanisation,
rising disposable incomes and relaxations of restrictions on foreign
travel, the Chinese travel market is expected to produce 100 million
outbound tourists a year by 2020, as for UNWTO long-term forecasts.
While the number of Chinese travelling to Europe is growing, and
European destinations remain at the top of Chinese travellers’ wish
list, Europe’s share of outbound travel is slightly but steadily
declining. Discussion held during the China Day conference lead to
conclude that a better understanding of the profile and specific
needs of Chinese travellers, together with a critical review of legal
and cultural barriers to travel will support European destinations to
tap the enormous potential of the Chinese outbound travel market
effectively. The European public and private sector committed to work
together and share best practices in order to target the Chinese
traveller and develop products that meet the real expectations of an
increasingly diversified travel market.
ETC
and UNWTO studies “The Chinese Outbound Travel Market” and
“Understanding China Outbound Tourism: What the Chinese Blogosphere
is saying about Europe” are available
on http://www.etc-corporate.org/market-intelligence/reports-and-studies.htm