Brett Butcher believes Chinese tourists escaping to the sun will revolutionize the leisure industry in Asia.  The 50-year-old Australian managing director of Langham Hotels International said ever wealthier people from the colder north of China will increasingly want to take their holidays in warmer climates.
He believes this will prove a boon to hotels on Hainan, the tropical island off China’s southern coast, and to various other destinations in Southeast Asia.
“It is the next big growth story in China which has yet to happen. People are going to start to ask themselves …

A group of the best tourist destinations in Africa have gathered to launch the “China To Africa” Project (CTA)
Gambia, Tanzania and Cameroon are the three founding members of this initiative to increase the number of Chinese tourists coming to their countries, for both leisure and business trips.
As Africa is now a key continent for China in terms of business, trade and tourism, this initiative has been welcomed by the African and Chinese travel & tourism industry.
The CTA President, Mrs Françoise Kameni-Lele (Based in Yaounde, Cameroon), is a well know personality …

Global market research firm Synovate announced the launch of Media Atlas China, a new syndicated media study of 68,000 consumers across 66 cities and rural areas in mainland China. This is the most comprehensive syndicated study conducted in China to date, providing in-depth knowledge and understanding on the lifestyle, spending, and media habits of today’s Chinese.
Says Steve Garton, Executive Director of Media at Synovate: “Chinese consumers and Chinese brands represent the new world order. The media ecosystem in China is complex and unique: marketers across the world who want to …

To cash in on China’s decision to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible, the Tourism  Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans a road show in the country to attract one million tourists into Thailand as targeted this year.
Speaking after a meeting of the tourism agency’s board of directors, Governor Surapon Sawetserani said TAT officials will visit China to negotiate with tour operators seeking their support in encouraging Chinese people to visit Thailand following the yuan’s appreciation.
“It is suitable now to attract Chinese tourists into Thailand because the strengthening of the …

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 …

The Managing Director of Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) Tobie Aupindi has told said that Namibian tourism sector has focused on China as a tourism emerging market, aiming to attract more Chinese  tourists to Namibia.
Aupindi said in a recent interview with Xinhua that foreign tourists to Namibia came from Germany and other European countries which had kindred relations with Namibia. Because of the global financial crisis, the country’s tourism industry has suffered a decline with dissatisfactory performance in recent years.
With China’s economic development and significantly increase in people’s well-beings, since 2007, …

With the goal of capitalizing on China’s growth in business travel, a team of Hawaii sales professionals will be in Shanghai, April 7-9, to sell the state’s meetings industry at the Incentive Travel & Conventions Meetings China (IT&CM) travel show.
Sales professionals representing the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB), Hawaii Convention Center, and Hawaii Tourism China will be promoting the attributes and affordability of the Islands of Hawaii to a burgeoning market that now ranks third worldwide behind the United Kingdom and United …

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 …

Follows Trend Of Increased Chinese-Language Signage At Tourist Sites, Mandarin-Language Tours
It’s been a difficult couple of years for the global tourism industry, which saw an aggregate drop in international tourist arrivals of around 4-6% in 2009. However, there are signs that the industry’s woes, which were exacerbated last year by the global financial crisis and the H1N1 virus, may be on the verge of turning around, powered by an increase in outbound tourists from emerging markets like China.
Jing Daily has extensively covered the ever-growing ranks of Chinese tourists heading abroad, many of …

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, …

Wine Production Tours Allow Students, Businesspeople Opportunity To Meet Wine Experts, Sample Beijing Favorites
Changyu, a popular winery for wine tourists, is fighting to be seen as China’s preeminent, and possibly first world-class, winery
One of the interesting developments that has followed increased consumption of and appreciation for grape wine in China has been the spread of “wine tourism” around the country. Over the past few years, more tour operators have added winery tours both for Chinese tourists going overseas and international tourists coming to China, which have proven quite popular — …

Relatively Young Age Of China’s Core Luxury Consumer Class Presents New Opportunities, Complexities For Luxury Brands
China’s luxury consumers are, on average, younger than their counterparts in developed economies. But geographical, age, gender, and cultural differences color their individual tastes and consumption habits
China’s luxury market is clearly an important and exciting place to be right now, but beyond the sales figures — which are, obviously, impressive, showing that China leapfrogged past the US over the last year to become the world’s second-largest luxury market — it becomes clear that quantitative and …

For thousands of well-off mainland Chinese, Hong Kong remains a popular destination for luxury shopping. As Hong Kong does not impose the same high (but gradually dropping) luxury tax as the Mainland, luxury fans can obtain their favorite brands for less. Today, CNN International looks at the growing flood of Mainland luxury shoppers that is keeping Hong Kong one of the healthiest luxury markets in the world.

Global Luxury Brands Are Pinning Hopes On These Two Growing Markets, But Which Will Emerge As The Clear Leader?

In the wake of last year’s economic slump, which continues to eat into the profits of the world’s top luxury brands in developed markets like North America and Japan, these brands have intensified their efforts in developing a strong foothold in the emerging world, particularly in the BRIC markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In recent months, however, it is becoming clear that most major luxury brands see their futures (at least …

Reducing High Luxury Tariffs, Which Have Turned Off High-End And Middle-Class Consumers Alike, Could Give China’s Luxury Revenues A Boost
Beijing has the right venues for luxury boutiques, but if China’s high luxury tax chases buyers away, luxury brands won’t see sustainable profits
China’s notoriously high luxury tax, which adds a 30-40% premium to a wide (and ever-changing) array of goods — from the usual suspects like handbags and jewelry to some sporting goods like golf clubs — is a source of constant frustration for many luxury brand marketers. Regardless of how …

Already Numbering Over 100 Million, The Chinese Middle Class Is Powering China’s Luxury Market
Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton often employ larger-than-life marketing techniques in the Chinese market, as their Shanghai location reflects
China’s luxury market has gained a lot of attention this year, mainly because it remains one of the few global markets where more luxury retailers are entering the market, rather than cutting back or leaving it altogether (as we’ve seen by more than one luxury retailer in Japan this year). Although a good deal of luxury spending in China …

Luxury Market In China A Mixed Bag For Foreign Brands, Who Fight To Get Customers To Buy Inside China Rather Than Traveling Overseas
Although Beijing and Shanghai are China’s “crown jewels,” second-tier cities like Chongqing may ultimately prove the engines for the creation of a more comprehensive Chinese consumer culture
We’ve discussed recent reports on the rebound of the Chinese luxury market (which didn’t drop that much to begin with, despite global economic woes), and this year’s findings in McKinsey & Company’s Insights China report that China is rocketing towards the top of the …

French Wine Producers And Chinese Travel Agencies Teaming Up To Promote Wine Tourism In France
The wine market has grown rapidly in China, and wine tourism operators hope to entice the country’s oenophiles with trips to French vineyards in coming years
Last month, we posted on the Sotheby’s auction of fine wines in Hong Kong, at which 100% of the bottles up for grabs sold, mostly to local Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese buyers. Over the past few years, as wine drinking has grown in popularity in China and the buyer …