Beijing Tourism Group (BTG), established in February 1998, is a leading State-owned tourism enterprise based in Beijing. It has successfully implemented a number of high profile events, including several receptions that formed part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
BTG was formed as the result of a restructuring program initiated by the Beijing municipal committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Beijing municipal government. Following its launch, BTG consisted of several subsidiaries in the hotel business and travel service, a coach and taxi service, and an exhibition company.
A …

SINA is one of the major players of the search engine in China and it just launched the SINA Micro-blog which is called “SINA Bo” http://t.sina.com.cn/ recently, which is currently in its Beta Testing Period. Any SINA www.sina.com Mail Account User is able to access the micro-blog without any invitation required.
After 10 minutes of using SINA Micro-blog, this tool is very much easy to use if you have already used Twitter. The concept is similar with 140 characters to say “What You are Doing”.

One difference is that all information, people …

In the past decade China has become the workshop for the world, its low-cost labour force toiling in factories to churn out cheap goods destined for western consumers. Many of the raw materials needed to feed this industrial juggernaut have to be imported from other countries and today China is the biggest driver of markets in commodities such as copper, oil and iron ore.
But as well as a multitude of low-paid factory workers, the country’s manufacturing boom has also created a large and growing number of baofahu – literally, the “suddenly …

UKTI research: Emerging markets in the global recession

Published:
18 September, 2009

The worst of the current global recession may now be over. Overall, emerging markets have performed better than developed economies (which have suffered their worst economic downturn in over 60 years). But conditions vary widely and are far from rosy. Although China and India have continued to grow rapidly, albeit at a less relentless pace than previously, Latin America has performed as poorly as Western economies, while Eastern Europe has performed even worse.
Apart from the impact of the economic downturn, companies …

Chairman Shao Qiwei of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) speaks to PATA Compass about his country’s plan to promote and boost tourism. Despite the economic downturn, he is confident of the future prosperity of tourism development.
So far 2009 has seen a slight decline for inbound tourism to China (PRC). What do you expect for the rest of the year and into 2010?
Since the second half of last year, we have had the financial crisis and, even more serious the Type A (H1N1) pandemic. This has affected the global tourism industry, …

VISA www.visa-asia.com is one of Pacific Asia Travel Assocation (PATA) www.pata.org premier partners. And during the recent PATA Travel Mart 2009 held in Hangzhou, China, VISA has showcased the VISA Tourism Outlook: China published in September 2009.
VISA Tourism Outlook: China (15 MB) is downloadable at http://ow.ly/rlVs
Summary for VISA Tourism Outlook: China
For China inbound travel, in 2008, China was at the forefront of many exciting tourism opportunities – the rest of the world was discovering what China offered as a holiday destinations, its tourism infrastructure was expanding and the Beijing 2008 …

When the JW Marriott in Jakarta suffered a deadly bomb attack on the morning of July 17 (followed shortly afterwards by a similar attack at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the same city) social networking site Twitter became a key tool to disseminate news and updates about the attack – both by Marriott itself and eyewitnesses on the scene.
Emergency phone numbers, messages of condolences and general reports of what happened quickly found their way onto Twitter, ensuring people around the world could keep up with events as they unfolded in real …

One of the highlights for the Day 2 is the BBC World News China Outbound Workshop – China, Asia’s Biggest Outbound Market.
Dr. Grace Pan of the Nielsen Company www.nielsen.com pointed out that travel is becoming more and more popular among the Chinese travelers with safety being the top consideration when choosing a destination. Besides safety, other factors include travel costs and expenses, good food, hygienic environment, eco and nature and VISA difficulty. Travel patters for leisure trips would conclude that 46% self organized, 18% is partially organized and 35% is …

CNNIC has released its latest search engine report showing that by the end of June 2009, the number of Chinese search engine users has reached 235 million with an increase of 59.49 million people, annual growth rate of 34%. The number will likely reach 260 million by the end of year 2009. Here is a summary of some interesting findings in China search engine market:

Main purpose of search engine uses: entertainment (especially music, over 39.5%)
Urban search engine users: 180 million
Rural search engine users: 55 million.
Mobile Internet users: 155 million
Mobile Search users: …

PATA Travel Mart (PTM) 2009 opened its doors today (23 September) at Hangzhou with 600 sellers from 38 markets and 306 buyers from 51 countries attending.
“With China now ranked as the fifth strongest source market globally by UNWTO (when measured by tourism-related expenditure) there’s no doubt that we’re in the right country at the right time this year. PATA is most grateful for the help, advice and support of the China National Tourism Administration and our hosts, Hangzhou People’s Municipal Government of China and Hangzhou Tourism Commission, for the outstanding …

BEIJING — China has stopped issuing travel documents to foreigners seeking to visit Tibet, according to local tour operators, another indicator of the government’s skittishness over the coming anniversary of the Communist victory in 1949.
The ban on new permits, which took effect on Monday, will last at least three weeks, travel agents say.
This is the third time foreign travel to Tibet has been halted since March 2008, when rioting killed at least 22 people in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, and left part of its main business district in flames.
Tour operators who arrange the paperwork …

The 5th International Conference on Destination Management with the theme of “Weathering The Storm of Global Recession: The Challenge for Destination Management” held in Hangzhou, China and just concluded on 22 September 2009 with so many take away points.
The First Day Report can also be viewed at http://www.chinatraveltrends.com/2009/09/21/5th-international-conference-on-destination-management-day-1-quick-report/
Second Day and the last session (Session 3) was about “Creating Opportunities” with the early morning session being moderated by Mr. Jurgen Bachmann, Secretary-General of CETO.
First Presentation was about “Innovation in Product Development”.
Mr. Hans Dominicus, Director of Marketing and Development of Amsterdam Tourism …

Fiji Tourism said on Tuesday that it will continue to explore and develop the markets of China, India and Europe.
Fiji has the largest market share of Chinese visitors compared to the neighboring Pacific island countries. And Fiji tourism industry is also focusing on Australia and New Zealand markets as these are the bread and butter routes.
The Fiji tourism industry said while they explore and develop the markets of China, India and Europe, they were dependent on neighboring countries as they flocked Fiji shores.
Source: China View (September 22, 2009)
Tourism is the …

“Thousand Islands” of Canada and “Thousand Islands Lake” of China, both beautiful tourist attractions bearing identical names, joined hands across the ocean Sunday with the signing of a friendship and cooperation agreement.
The two world-renowned tourist destinations will share their resources as they try to draw more visitors while ensuring a sustainable environment.
Under the agreement, local tourism departments will meet regularly for mutual promotion of products and share information and experiences in managing and protecting their environment.
The agreement was signed by Frank Kinsella, mayor of Leeds and the Thousand Islands, Ontario, …

The 5th International Conference on Destination Management with the theme of “Weathering The Storm of Global Recession: The Challenge for Destination Management” took off in Hangzhou China and held from 21-22 September 2009.
Organized by World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) with the cooperation of People’s Municipal Government of Hangzhou and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the conference objective is to highlight the need for effective tourism destination management.
Mr. Du Jiang, Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) mentioned that even though the number of China …

China International Travel Service Corp has set the price range for its Shanghai IPO, aiming to raise up to 2.6 billion yuan for an expansion, adding to a slew of fund-raisings that have already unsettled the country’s stock market.
Beijing-based China Travel, the country’s top tourist agency, priced its 220 million A shares denominated in yuan, or 25 percent of its expanded capital after the initial public offering, in the 10.80-11.78 yuan range, it said in a statement published in the official Shanghai Securities News on Tuesday.
The range would allow China …

Chinese social networking site company Oak Pacific Interactive has announced that its Renren.com and Kaixin.com have realized connectivity.
Based on Oak Pacific Interactive’s latest interconnection technology, this new service allows users of either Renren.com or Kaixin.com to use both websites without repeated registration or login. Meanwhile, Renren.com emphasized that all the files and privacy settings of users will not be changed after the interconnection and users can change their settings at any time, if they want.
However, the game sectors and users’ friend relations on the two websites will continue to be …

Oak Pacific CEO Joe Chen Yizhou revealed the company’s social networking site renren.com has broken even four years after being set up.
Analysts have hailed the move as an achievement for such a relatively new service. The site, which changed its name from xiaonei.com last month in order to attract a wider user base of white collar workers, is next month embarking on a publicity blitz across all media to capitalize on the growing numbers of Internet users.
Without revealing figures, Chen, 40, said the site had been losing money despite having …

Asia Pacific travelers stretch their travel budgets by shopping at duty free stores, according to a survey commissioned by Visa1.
The Visa Travel Smart Survey asked 2,226 travelers from across the Asia Pacific region on their travel spending habits and found that Korean and Chinese travelers spent the most on duty free items on their last trip with an average expenditure of US$358 and US$333 respectively. This was US$100 more than the regional average.
Brian McGrory, Regional Head, Debit Products, Visa, said: “Duty free shopping can offer great savings on international brands …

We wrote about Orange Hotels and Wu Hai previously, but here is another interview that is quite interesting:
By offering travellers chic boutique hotel amenities at budget prices, Chinese entrepreneur Wu Hai is now enjoying the fruits of his success, setting up a chain of 16 hotels in China in just three short years since 2006.

Wu, 40, is the founder and CEO of the fledgling Orange Hotel Group, which seeks to emulate the hip and trendy appeal of computer and technology giant Apple Inc. Indeed, the name of the hotel group is an …