The report found that one in every four social media users in what they call ‘initiators’ — influential usrs that regularly start conversation, create content and publish their views online and are the fertile starting point for new ideas, services and products.
A further 29 per cent of Chinese social media users are ‘commenters’ who react and comment on other people’s views. They are also the ‘accelerators’ of new ideas.

The largest group, comprising 45 per cent of social media users, are ‘gawkers’ who quietly …

China’s central government says it will boost domestic tourism development by relaxing market access, welcoming foreign companies and slashing ticket prices for tourist spots.
The State Council has issued measures aimed at speeding up the development of China’s tourism industry. The government is looking to revitalize domestic tourism competition by introducing foreign tourism companies.
The government is about to loosen market access, break down industrial and regional market access, and streamline the administrative admission process. They are also vowing to push forward the transformation …

Just how how hard can it be, asks Sina blogger and freelance journalist Chen Zikun in his August 6 post, for Chinese travelers to get a visa—with Chen’s answer apparently being: not too hard—in which he shares the stories behind visas for the many countries he’s been to:
Until I went to apply for a visa for my first ever trip out of the country, I was always happily under the impression that, being from a country with a rapidly-developing economy, and especially with how smug red-to-the-root media …

Shan Phillips, Vice President, Greater China, Telecom Practice, The Nielsen Company
On the streets of Guangzhou, Harbin and Shanghai, the mobile phone has become ubiquitous.  Once the domain of the elite, it now seems that just about everybody has one.  Widespread ownership of mobiles is only a fairly recent development in China, but consumers there have fully embraced the technology and in some ways are using it more robustly than their American and European counterparts.
For many people in China, the mobile Web is the only one …

China-USA air travel veteran on the state of outbound travel
China TravelDaily by Maggie Rauch
As a growing number of Chinese travel abroad for business and leisure, competition to lure mainland travelers is also heating up. One of the people responsible for steering mainland travelers to the United States, and one of the most experienced aviation professionals working in China today, is Delta Airlines’ Director & Chief Representative of China & Hong Kong, Sandeep Bahl. Bahl has worked in aviation for more than two decades, and has been stationed in either Japan …

PRESS RELEASE
August 5, 2010: TravelDaily (www.traveldaily.cn), China’s leading online publisher and event organizer with emphasis on the distribution, marketing and technology trends in the travel and tourism industries, today announced that it has welcomed Amadeus as a diamond sponsor for the 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit, to be held in Beijing on September 15-16.
Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, has proven its distribution technology can maximize revenues and increase efficiency for all sectors of the travel industry in Asia, including …

Here is an interesting site that makes statistics about China fun and visual. The below posts is about the 60 largest cities in China.  Have a look at Chinfographics.com, and explore more information such as real estate and car ownership in Beijing.
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For purpose of giving viewers an impression of Chinese city sizes, the graph depicts 60 Chinese cities of which the urban area population is larger than 1 million. From the bottom to the top, they are listed in an order by their sizes. The smallest is Qiqihar, Northeast China, …

Dear Tour Operator/Travel Agent,
A new EU Visa Code took effect on 5th April 2010 with the aim of harmonising and simplifying Schengen visa applications. To monitor its implementation, European Tour Operators Association is conducting a survey; they would also like to hear your experiences of visa processing for the UK and Ireland. which are not affected by this new code.
If you work with any of the origin markets affected, please complete this survey by clicking  http://www.consumerdatasurveys.com/etoa/

European Tour Operators Association would be very grateful if you could forward it to any …

The Visa and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Asia Pacific Travel Intentions Survey 2010 has found mainland Chinese travelers plan to travel most out of all Greater China travelers.
The Survey, which was conducted in May 2010 and interviewed 1,571 people in the Greater China region, found that on average, mainland Chinese travelers are planning for 7.4 business and leisure trips in the next two years, compared with the 5.6 and 4.5 trips anticipated by Hong Kong and Taiwanese travelers.
The results also show that Greater China travelers are less affected by …

TravelDaily (www.traveldaily.cn), China’s leading online publisher and event organizer with emphasis on distribution, marketing and technology in the travel and tourism industries, announced today it will partner with PhoCusWright to host the 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit in Beijing from Sep. 15 to 16, 2010.
The China Travel Distribution Summit 2010 will bring together some of the world’s and China’s most influential travel industry leaders and executives to discuss core issues affecting travel.
“Despite a global downturn that has been impacting the world economy since late 2008, China remains the hotspot …

Standard Chartered Bank and China Unionpay (CUP) have announced an ATM alliance through which Standard Chartered’s global ATM network will provide ATM services to CUP cardholders in 20 countries and territories.
It is also a remarkable achievement for CUP’s internationalisation. The cooperation will provide payment convenience to CUP cardholders for their travel, business and study in Africa, Middle East and Asia.
Before 2009 CUP cardholders could withdraw cash and check account balance at SCB ATMs only in China and Hong Kong. Now these services have been extended to SCB ATMs in Kenya, …

The Internet has transformed the lives of millions while disrupting and displacing the business models of traditional media channels around the globe. But what impact does the Internet have on how people live? How important a role does it play in their decisions? Does that role vary from country to country, or are users’ experiences universal? Will concerns about such issues as privacy and security dampen consumers’ digital enthusiasm, or will new media continue to play an expanding role in their lives?
These are critical questions. The Digital Influence Index has …

Sina Weibo and other domestic microblogging services are more than a match for the United States company, Lin Shujuan reports
Huang Jianxiang, 42, was once China’s best-known sports commentators.
He came to international attention during a World Cup commentary on June 26, 2006. Five months after his passionate outburst against Australia, while describing the final goal of the match between Australia and Italy, he resigned from China Central Television. Many thought that was the end of his career as a soccer commentator.
But Huang is back in business, commenting on each team and …

Posting negative comments on the Web about products and services is fast becoming the most popular channel for Chinese consumers to vent their spleen. Yet, behind this veneer of free expression lies a murky world of cyber bullies and unscrupulous webmasters who are manipulating the media to either promote or smear a company’s image for profit.
In a country with nearly 400 million Web users, online marketing has become a big business and has spawned a legion of Internet public relations agencies. Their services include not only getting a product seen …

Agreement with China a Great Opportunity for Canada’s Tourism Industry

Ottawa, June 24, 2010 – With today’s official signing of the Approved Destination Status agreement with China, Canada’s tourism industry is now presented with an excellent opportunity for growth.

“This is a great day for tourism in Canada, and a great day for travelers from China,” said David Goldstein, President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC). “This agreement will create a greater openness between our countries, allowing Chinese visitors greater access to all of Canada’s iconic attractions …

China Tuesday published a white paper on its internet policy, stressing its commitment to freedom of speech on the internet.
The white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced facts of the development and use of the internet in China.
Coming three months after the very public dispute with Google, which resulted in the shutdown of Google’s China-based portal, the paper offers a revealing look back on Chinese Internet history as well as where the country stands today.
Not surprisingly, China still supports the so-called “Great Firewall” approach to controlling and censoring …

Internet users in China spend about 1 billion hours online each day, more than double the daily total in the United States—and that number will grow to well over 2 billion hours a day by 2015, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This report, titled China’s Digital Generations 2.0: Digital Media and Commerce Go Mainstream, offers a comprehensive study of online behavior in China based on quantitative data as well as interviews with nearly 2,000 people from 12 cities in 11 of China’s 22 provinces. …

While China’s rich history going back thousands of years and its countless dynasties lure millions of foreign tourists each year, more Chinese are now venturing beyond their country’s borders.
Rapid economic growth has created a middle class no longer satisfied with the beaches of east coast cities such as Dalian or Qingdao, or the historical delights of cities such as Xi’an in the interior, with its underground army of terracotta warriors.
While Chinese tourists have tended to favour destinations closer to home, more are venturing further afield to Europe, North America and …

BEIJING – Chinese tourists are likely to spend $100 billion on overseas trips in 2015, Shao Qiwei, head of the China National Tourism Administration, forecast on Wednesday.
The projection is based on every Chinese tourist currently spending $1,000 on each outbound trip and the estimation that Chinese tourists will make 100 million overseas trips by 2015.
In the meantime, the deficit in tourism is expected to increase to $6 billion this year, up from China’s first deficit in tourism last year of around $4 billion, he …

Prestigious Award recognizes a new innovative and ground-breaking approach to building brand awareness and generating sales by leveraging Internet Technologies and Social Media Marketing for travel and tourism companies entering the complex China Market
BEIJING, China, May 21, 2010 – For the seventh time, the “CTW Chinese Tourists Welcoming Award” winners, determined by an international jury of experts from inside and outside China, were presented with the awards during the COTTM China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market on April 29th, 2010 in Beijing, for providing excellent services and products for the …