China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China’s Top 3 Social Network Sites

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, ...

China’s Top 3 Social Network Sites is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China’s Ctrip.com Promises To Never Be Undersold

Chinese online travel service provider Ctrip.com has announced that it will compensate consumers for any differences in online booking prices. Ctrip.com said that, from March 10, 2010, all the room rates it provides on its website for hotels in China will be the lowest available. If any consumers find room rates lower than those on its website, it will pay them compensation to the value of three times the price difference. This is the first time ever that a travel service provider in China has promised to compensate consumers for price ...

China’s Ctrip.com Promises To Never Be Undersold is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Twitter in China? In Due Time, Twitter Founder Promise

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 by ...

Twitter in China? In Due Time, Twitter Founder Promise is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China Issues Warning to Google’s Partners

Chinese authorities have warned major partners of Google’s China’s based search engine that they must comply with censorship laws even if Google does not, an industry expert with knowledge of the notice said Sunday. Chinese government information authorities warned some of Google’s biggest Web partners on Friday that they should prepare backup plans in case Google ceases censoring the results of searches on its local Chinese-language search engine, said the expert, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation by the government. The warning was the latest indication that ...

China Issues Warning to Google’s Partners is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Google to Shutdown Search Engine in China

In view of the hardening of positions on both sides, Google reportedly has chalked out a detailed strategy for closure of its search engine in China, and it is almost final now as the talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent deadlock since January of this year. The Chinese government on Friday warned the US based search company, that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship with Google in China. To recap on what happened, it was December last year when the Google – China ...

Google to Shutdown Search Engine in China is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

ITB Workshop reveals: Social Media Marketing is the best way to get the attention of the growing Chinese Outbound Tourism market

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 ...

ITB Workshop reveals: Social Media Marketing is the best way to get the attention of the growing Chinese Outbound Tourism market is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Ctrip.com Focuses on Individual Travelers

Ctrip.com International Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTRP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) assures customers that they will get the lowest price for online booking of hotel rooms and promises compensation if they are cheated. The promise is made in partnership with hotel chains at home and abroad, including ...

Ctrip.com Focuses on Individual Travelers is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Social networks are key to cracking China

Business social media can unlock the door to the world’s second-largest economy A surge in Chinese exports for January has kicked the world’s fastest-growing economy back into life, at least in the eyes of Westerners. But China is still a difficult place to do business. Is there an opportunity for business social networks to break down trade barriers? China is celebrating its 4,708th year. It is the year of the tiger and the country is safe in the knowledge that its economy is back on track. The trade figures make promising reading. ...

Social networks are key to cracking China is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Online travel booking users exceeds 30 million in China

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 ...

Online travel booking users exceeds 30 million in China is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China’s Twitter Clones

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. // However all three – plus Twitter itself – were ...

China’s Twitter Clones is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China, can you innovate?

A great article to further understand the growth of China – by Michael Elliott, International Editor for CNN (Fortune Magazine) — What economic crisis? After a blip last winter, China is growing at more than 8% a year, and the scale and speed at which the country is building a modern infrastructure are mind-boggling. But once you’ve absorbed the metrics — the size of its trade surplus, the thousands of miles of high-speed railways, the new ports and highways — a nagging question comes into focus: Sure, China can grow, but can ...

China, can you innovate? is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Ctrip.com Mines The Travel And Vacation Market

Online travel service provider Ctrip.com has announced it has reorganized its vacation department to a travel and vacation department to further exploit the Chinese travel and vacation market. Guo Dongjie, the vice president of Ctrip.com, said that the recently-promulgated “View on Accelerating Development of Tourism Industry” has greatly improved the status of the tourism industry in China and it has pointed out the direction for the future development of tourism enterprises. As the leader in the Chinese online travel sector, Ctrip.com will focus more on mass tourism while maintaining its competitive ...

Ctrip.com Mines The Travel And Vacation Market is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Making money from Chinese tours isn’t easy, agencies say

Competition between operators in the U.S. is driving down prices By Joanne Lee-Young, Vancouver SunMarch 8, 2010There was much official fanfare when, after more than a decade of high-level wrangling, Canada got the nod for so-called approved destination status from China. That was a few months ago. Now, while the actual bilateral agreement gets hammered out — line by arcane line, privately — B.C.-based tour operators are all a-chatter about how approved destination status (ADS) has played out in the U.S. and Australia, and what they would like to see in Canada’s ...

Making money from Chinese tours isn’t easy, agencies say is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Chinese Tourist Spends Thousands Of Dollars Within Hours In The USA

According to the US Department of Commerce, a Chinese tourist spends an average of $6,000 USD in the United States. This enormous spending power of the Chinese tourist is the main reason behind the New York City Tourism Bureau to vigorously promote the visit of thousands of Chinese visitors; the largest group in NYC tourism history. According to the Tourism Bureau’s latest news, among the main activities of Chinese tourist, 95% are shopping, followed by dining. Business owners are all smiles upon the arrival of Chinese tourists. Bloomingdales in NYC, a ...

Chinese Tourist Spends Thousands Of Dollars Within Hours In The USA is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Luxury Consumer Culture in China: Inside Observer Interview with McKinsey & Company

Vinay Dixit is the Senior Director of Asia Consumer Centers in McKinsey & Company and leads the Insights China by McKinsey service line. He joined McKinsey’s Shanghai office in February 2008 and has led several significant studies on Chinese consumers. His most recent publications include, “The coming of age: China’s new class of wealthy consumers” and “One Country, Many Markets – Targeting the Chinese consumer with McKinsey ClusterMap”. The China Observer: You co-authored a report last year that found China will host the world’s fourth-largest number of wealthy households by 2015. ...

Luxury Consumer Culture in China: Inside Observer Interview with McKinsey & Company is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China’s obsession with Sex Online

Yahoo and Chinese Yahoo Sex is definitely the universal theme for Chinese websites, from the major portals to small sites. It is very interesting to compare a US portal with a Chinese portal site to see the difference on this topic. It happens Yahoo is a good example for this since Yahoo has a Chinese Yahoo (Yahoo China) and it is comparable to other major Chinese portals, such as Sina.com. There is no sex on the front page of Yahoo at all. You basically don’t see any ads or words related to ...

China’s obsession with Sex Online is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

10 Important Chinese Websites

Baidu.com: Baidu (百度) is the Chinese Google. It dominates Chinese language search with about an 80% market share and is one of the biggest sites worldwide. As a local Chinese site it censors it’s search results. Like Google, Baidu offers a number of services apart from search, including Maps, documents, MP3 search, Baidu Space (a social network with over 100 million users) Baidu Encyclopedia, (China’s largest encyclopedia by users) and is launching a new video site called QiYi.com in March. QQ.com QQ is a portal that runs a number of services, most notably ...

10 Important Chinese Websites is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Social networking is expanding its reach into the 35+ market and beyond

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 ...

Social networking is expanding its reach into the 35+ market and beyond is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

Florida hoping to lure tourists from China

South Florida is starting to court the next big thing in tourism: visitors from China. Broward and Palm Beach counties are working with state tourism agency Visit Florida to lure Chinese tourists, providing materials for travel trade shows in China and welcoming delegations of Chinese travel agents and press to help spread the word about what South Florida offers. On a recent Friday, a group of eight Chinese travel writers visited Fort Lauderdale, taking a water taxi tour, shopping on Las Olas Boulevard, as well as sampling shrimp and steak at Shula’s ...

Florida hoping to lure tourists from China is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online

China Tourism Report Q2 2010 Published by CNTA

Overall Decline In 2009 In January 2010, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) released its full-year report on the country’s tourist industry for 2009. It shows that tourist arrivals fell by 3.0% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2009, to total 126.6mn. This was a decline from the 143mn arrivals registered in 2008. This decline comes as little surprise, given the adverse economic environment. In particular, the global economic downturn weighed heavily on foreign tourism arrivals, while the outbreak of the H1N1 virus (swine flu) in China in April 2009 further deterred tourism. ...

China Tourism Report Q2 2010 Published by CNTA is a post from: China Travel Trends-Reaching the Chinese Travel Market Online