Nation biggest market in Asia; 100 million people forecast to travel

BEIJING: More mainland tourists are expected to spend money on overseas travel this year, said a report by a think tank to the national tourism authority.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010, released by the China Tourism Academy on Thursday, estimated that 54 million tourists would go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009.
They are expected to spend 48 billion yuan ($6.86 billion) overseas, up 14 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
“The outbound travel …

The leading social networking site in China, renren.com, started out as a blatant Facebook clone – but it now has tens of millions of users. Despite obvious similarities to Facebook, there is one significant difference from the U.S. in how Renren and other Chinese SNS are used. The bread and butter of these sites is social games using virtual items. Indeed, Farmville originated in China!
In this first post of a series, we outline the most popular social network sites in China. In follow-up posts, we’ll look at Twitter clones, …

ChinaTravelTrends.com, new interactive platform for China outbound tourism, launched in Berlin, with backing of PATA

Chinese affluent citizens increasingly like to travel abroad, but distrust official information.
With more than 50 million outbound travellers expected to leave China in 2010, the Chinese outbound market is attracting more and more attention of destinations around the world.
As part of the ITB Convention 2010, a workshop organised by the German-based COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute and the Chinese company Dragon Trail, presented Social Media Marketing as the most …

The popularity of Twitter has produced a number of clones in China, just as there are Facebook clones. Some of China’s Twitter clones have been closed down by the Chinese government, but some have survived. We take a look at both cases in this post. We also assess Twitter’s chances of success in China, should it ever be freed from the ‘Great Firewall of China.’
Fanfou, Jiwai and Digu were some of the first Twitter clones to become successful in China.
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However all three – plus Twitter itself – were …

We’re sure that by now, we don’t need to tell you how important social media is. What we do need to tell you is that Chinese social media is more important than you think.
If you’re in an industry that markets to the Chinese; whether it’s consumers, tourists, business to business or the public sector, you could be missing out on a huge potential audience.
Here are our top 10 reasons for embracing Chinese social media:
1) China has about 400 million internet users. Never mind all the Chinese speakers that live in other countries.
2) …

The state-owned newspaper The Global Times has run a particularly open article about the extensive controls on the internet within China and their effect on users and Internet companies. If you’re pressed for time to read the whole thing, DigiCha posts some choice quotes.

Douban, a Chinese social networking service website, received $10 million in venture capital from its second round of fundraising on January 25, after raising $2 million in 2006. Photo: CFP
He couldn’t take it anymore.
When Hong Kong writer and poet Liao Weitang found his online photo album had …

China says at minimum 70 million people will visit the Shanghai World Expo this year; local government authorities are dangling whopping numbers like 100 million.
That’s an average of more than 380,400 people descending on the site on each of the expo’s 184 days, starting May 1. Around 20 million tickets have been sold, organizers say, and to underscore their confidence in demand they are sticking to plans for gradually increasing the cost of daily admission, now “benchmarked” at 160 yuan, or $23.50.
The government even suggests some visitors might prefer to …

China’s online tourism market is booming as an increasingly wealthy middle class travels for pleasure and the use of credit cards and the Internet soars, analysts say.
As millions of people pack their bags for Lunar New Year holidays, the busiest travel period of the year, many will have booked their trips home online, according to Chinese Internet research and consulting firm iResearch.
Revenue from online flight, hotel and package tour bookings will hit 4.75 billion yuan (695.8 million US dollars) in 2010, up 27 percent from last year, iResearch says, with …

www.chinatraveltrends.com, COTRI and Dragon Trail are inviting all visitors
to the ITB in Berlin to a China Outbound Tourism workshop during the ITB 2010 – March 11th at 4.30pm to 5.45pm in Hall 7.1.
As part of the ITB Convention Destination day the China Outbound Tourism Marketing Forum @
ITB Berlin 2010 will look at “Social Media Tourism Marketing – The Example of China”.
The Chinese Outbound market is one of the few source markets which continued to grow even during the global economic crisis. Social Media are increasingly important especially for the younger, …

A marketer’s guide to the world of Chinese networking.
Over the past few years, brand presence on Chinese SNS has largely been limited to passive and static advertising and the occasional branded widget. But recently, brands have been pursuing more creative and interactive ways to engage SNS users by upping the level of brand-consumer interactivity. These efforts range from curated BBS discussion forums to interactive contests within the confines of a particular SNS. Compared to other online markets, branded efforts on local Chinese SNS are still in an embryonic stage, however. …

“We actually did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil.”
– Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the company’s decision to offer a censored version of its search services in China, Jan. 30, 2006
Before reflecting on the latest news, also take some time to watch Kaifu Lee’s presentation on Youtube about Google’s approach to Google, and the Internet landscape in China – to Carnegie Mellon students in Feb 2008. (Kaifu Lee resigned as CEO of Google China in late 2009)
Evidently Google is taking its informal “don’t …

By Lara Farrar, for CNN – December 28, 2009//
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Beijing, China (CNN) — A handful of homegrown micro-blogging sites emerged about the same time Twitter started to gain a small, yet steadily growing, share of Chinese Internet users, beginning about 2007, around a year after Twitter was launched in the U.S. in 2006.
While almost all of the early Chinese micro-blogging pioneers faced the same fate as Twitter, most of the sites …

Using Social Media in China to promote Chile via Chilean Wine
There is a popular saying in politics that all politics are local; and in China the same can be said about the Internet. Local players, in tune to the specific needs of the country’s “Netizens”, rule the digital space, and the numbers are staggering. Currently, the Internet in China is home to over 340 million users who are online for an average of 16 hours per week, the same amount of time they spend watching television. There are 111 million …

The fast pace of change in social media tools and the travel market in China are combining to inspire a search for the best way to reach China’s increasingly affluent, increasingly independent travelers. The future of social media’s role in China’s travel market was a hot topic at the recent China Travel Distribution Summit at the OCT Interlaken Resort in Shenzhen. Online travel agencies like Ctrip and Elong, as well as hotels, airlines, and travel meta search sites—all kinds of companies effected by online travel research and booking—are looking for …

Here is a great article from SinoTech founder Matt McDougall.
There has been a lot written about the online travel sector in China but there is not many putting out a view for the future for Chinese online travel ecommerce. In this article, I will take out my crystal ball and make some predictions about what the possibilities hold for the future of the online travel market. This is simply my view of the travel ecommerce space and although history may prove me wrong; that’s just the risk of being …

A decision by China to bestow approved destination status on Canada will open the gates for tourists from that country, pumping millions of dollars into Canada’s tourism industry, experts say.  It’s a designation that makes it easier for Chinese nationals to visit Canada on tourist visas, not just as students, or for business reasons, as well as allow Canada to advertise as a tourist destination in China and authorize Chinese travel agencies to market and promote leisure group tours for travel in Canada.  Canada is the 135th country to …

COTRI and Dragon Trail have signed partnership agreement during China International Travel Mart (CITM) in Kunming.

Comprehensive research, social media and other e-marketing activities for the Chinese tourism market.
November 23, 2009. Two leading research and consulting organizations for the Chinese tourism markets have agreed to join forces during the CITM, held in Kunming from November 19-22, 2009. CITM in Kunming is the major tourism event for tourism trade organized by Chinese government officials provides the ideal venue for the start of our cooperation.
Even in times of economic crisis and growing …

Lots of activity in China’s burgeoning online travel industry. Travel search engine Qunar has raised $15 million in funding in a round led by GGV Capital. Mayfield Fund, GSR Ventures, and Tenaya Capital also participated in the round, according to investment research firm JLM Pacific Epoch, which cites local media reports.
The big funding round comes only two weeks after Expedia-subsidiary TripAdvisor bought up rival travel site Kuxun.cn for more than $12 million. Both Expedia and Qunar’s backers are betting that the Chinese travel industry will continue to boom, along with …

We are delighted to announce that the 10th Global Travel & Tourism Summit will take place in Beijing, China on 25-27 May 2010. The Summit will be hosted by China National Tourism Administration and the The People’s Government of the Municipality of Beijing and supported by the Summit patrons Beijing Tourism Administration and Beijing Tourism Group.
Jean-Claude Baumgarten,
President & CEO, World Travel & Tourism Council

The WTTC announced its agreement with the Government of China to hold the 2010 Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Beijing from 25-27 May.
“We are very pleased …

By Jens Thraenhart, Chief Strategist – Dragon Trail (November 2, 2009)

Apple’s iPhone finally arrived at market in China last Friday (October 30, 2009) and is evidently selling fairly well, despite wallet-emptying prices. ChinaNews.com found about 300 people queued up to buy the device at China Unicom’s flagship store in Beijing. That’s far fewer than you’d find at an Apple (AAPL) launch event in the U.S., but  the Chinese version of the iPhone is quite high, with prices ranging from 4,999 yuan ($730) and 6,999 yuan (about $1,025).
In any event, those higher prices …