More and more countries have been trying to attract tourists from China. Vietnam has taken steps to lure more travelers from its northern neighbor. According to the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute, in 2008, Chinese people made 46 million trips abroad, 90 percent of which were trips to Asia. China has become the biggest source of tourists in Asia, which explains why popular tourist destinations in Asia have launched numerous campaigns to attract tourists from China.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the number of Chinese …

When 25-year-old He Fan watched Disney’s Finding Nemo she was captivated by the wondrous sights beneath the waves.
The English language teacher from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – the world’s most landlocked city – had only ever experienced 30 minutes of snorkeling before, albeit off the tropical paradise Indonesian island of Bali.
However, fuelled by those two experiences and a curiosity about marine life that she has nurtured since childhood, He splashed out on professional diving instruction and gained a globally recognized certificate of competence, despite knowing she …

In Italy, most cities still lack a direct flight to the island of Sardinia, the second-largest and arguably most breathtaking island in the Mediterranean. It’s a convenience the residents of Shanghai, however, might have shortly.
The island, with its turquoise waters, white-sand beaches and purple-flowered fields, has been chosen by China’s financial capital as the preeminent “exotic honeymoon paradise” for couples.
A massive promotional campaign aimed at boosting Chinese tourism on the island has been jointly launched by Shanghai’s municipality and Sardinia’s authorities.
“China is a growing market,” said Giorgio Macioccu, head of …

Just a year ago, Chinese travelers could not do much online except conduct research. Buying travel was almost exclusively an offline activity. But that’s all changing quickly.
A growing number of the 404-million Internet users on the Chinese mainland are now making travel purchases online. And that growth will accelerate in the coming years, according to iResearch, which will lead to a strong surge in Internet outlets.
“And iResearch estimates that revenue from the online travel service market will more than triple between 2009 and 2013,” the company says.
The number of China’s …

Lin Cheng-ming runs a small souvenir shop in Hengchuen Town on the southernmost tip of Taiwan. This year, he began to accept the Renminbi, the mainland’s currency, from his customers.
Although the Renminbi and the New Taiwan dollar cannot be directly exchanged, Lin wanted to make mainland tourists feel comfortable.
“We also began accepting (the mainland-based) UnionPay cards late last year,” Lin said.
A group of mainland tourists arrived in Taiwan in July 2008. They were the first mainland tourists to visit Taiwan since the two sides split amid civil war 59 years …

The fall of the euro against the yuan has prompted more Chinese to travel to European countries, as they look to pick up luxury brands on the cheap.
Li Yaoyi, resident of Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, has just finished a fruitful trip. “A 1,000-euro purse now costs about 8,000 yuan, which is about 1,400 yuan cheaper according to the converted
price paid for the commodity in the same period last year.”
Louis Vuitton, Omega and some other luxury brands now cost less in Europe than in Hong Kong or Macao, …

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 …

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) not only expects the number of Chinese travelers to Vietnam to recover this year but also aims for them to double to around one million, tourism officials said.
The administration is going by a strong increase in visitors from China in the first five months of this year, and cites as well several promotion programs in China in the past two years and an increase in air routes.
In January-May more than 339,000 people came from China, up 111% year-on-year.
“We are receiving benefits from marketing …

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 …

Industry insiders at the 4th Asia Luxury Travel Market (ALTM) exhibition in Shanghai predicted a resurgence in the luxury travel market, with the Asia-Pacific region and China in particular leading the way.
“The ALTM forum held on Monday concluded that Asia offers the greatest growth for the luxury travel industry,” Simon Mayle, marketing manager for ALTM organizer Reed Travel Exhibitions, told the Global Times Wednesday. “Japan is one of the leading tourist source markets in the world as is Australia. Furthermore, China is rapidly …

The price of air tickets to Japan has been rising since May following media reports of an upcoming relaxation in Japan’s visa requirements for Chinese citizens, according to travel agencies in the city.
According to a marketing manager of Shanghai China Youth Travel Agency surnamed Liu, the price of air tickets from Shanghai to Tokyo has been pushed up by the surge in bookings. “A return trip is up by 1,000 yuan ($146) compared with the price in April,” he told the Global Times Saturday.
However, it appears that the media coverage …

China Outpaces Europe & U.S. on Economic Optimism According to new Marist Poll/Marriott Hotels & Resorts Global Business Survey
May 18, 2010 - A first-of-its-kind poll of business travelers from four major economies commissioned by Marriott Hotels & Resorts indicates that 2010 may be shaping up as a year of transition from economic pessimism to greater confidence.  More than 60% of 1,207 respondents in four countries agree that business travel is essential; 75% of Chinese plan to travel more.
Key survey findings:

Approximately one-third of business travelers polled in the U.S. (35%), UK (33%), …

One of the hottest conversations online in China right now is about the so-called ‘water army’, a term referring to people employed to post comments on online forums and social networking groups that benefit commercial clients. Postings by the ‘water army’ may be negative or positive (more on this below), but whatever the case they are lies and the practice is leading to declining trust in social media sources.
The situation has got so bad that according to a special report on CCTV (aired on …

Topics regarded as sensitive include names of political leaders

To police the internet China has employed what is regarded by many as the world’s most formidable censorship machine. But as ever more Chinese get online, more and more users also understand what it means to jump over the government’s “Great Firewall of China”.
The country’s firewall system is complex and multi-layered, says Isaac Mao, one of China’s first bloggers.
“The first layer is technical. The government has invested a lot to build routers and other infrastructure to filter, monitor and block websites and …

The U.S. media were rife with stories in the 1950s and 1960s about how TV, also known as the boob tube, was changing U.S. family lifestyles forever.
Well, the same thing seems to be happening with family Internet use in China these days.
Management consultant McKinsey published a report this month that says people in the 60 biggest Chinese cities spend about 70% of their leisure time on the Internet. In rural towns, the figure is said to be about 50%.
In China, which may soon get a version of U.S. video Web …

By Joab Jackson, IDG News Service
During a New York panel discussion on social media and digital activism held Monday, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei secured a promise from Twitter creator Jack Dorsey that his company will offer a Chinese version of its social networking service.
Though Dorsey quickly qualified his response by noting that it may be some time yet before the service will be available for the country, due to technical and legal hurdles.
The exchange took place at the Paley Center in New York, in a session sponsored …

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 …

China’s online travel booking users in 2009 reached 30.24 million, increasing 77.9 percent from the previous year, according to a report released recently by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Ctrip, the one-stop China travel service, also says its number of members has reached 30 million.
Online travel booking in 2009 saw rapid development and has become a highlight of the tourism market. According to statistics released by the CNNIC, online travel booking users in 2009 increased 77.9 percent to reach 13.24 million. The growth rate is second only to online payment …

Social networks were once the domain of the young and tech-savvy. Not anymore, as Facebook reports a huge growth in older users last year. Also in China has the 35+ user base of doubled year over year.
Picture a social network user. Once upon a time it was easy – they were pimply teens huddled in messy bedrooms. Or young professionals organising their social lives. These days, however, they’re becoming far harder to categorise.
Last year Facebook reported huge growth in the 25 to 54 age group. After a feverish year of …

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 …