Mainland tourists arrive in Taiwan

Representatives of the nation’s airlines and the travel industry yesterday expressed high hopes for an upcoming meeting hoping it will address urgent issues and make substantial changes to cross-strait charter flight services.

Travel Agent Association chairman Yao Ta-kuan  said yesterday that the number of charter flights could be increased to at least 200 per week.

The meeting could also help add five more mainland airports to the list of those eligible for charter flights, he said.

Yao said the mainlandonly allows residents from 13 provinces to visit Taiwan and only 33 travel agencies on the mainland are authorized to arrange tour groups. He said he hoped these numbers would be at least doubled following the meeting.

Tony Su, chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association, said both sides had agreed during the first meeting in June that airline companies could start setting up offices on either side of the strait. However, Taiwanese airlines still cannot operate offices on the mainland the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has yet to stipulate guidelines that legalize such business operations in China.

Su said the safety of cross-strait charter flights was another critical issue.

While the two sides have reached a consensus to move from weekend-only charter flights to daily charter flights, Su said the number of Chinese tourists would also have to grow simultaneously.

He said, ‘There must be a real increase in the numbers of Chinese tourists and that increase cannot be just those who used to take transit flights via Hong Kong and Macau.’
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Source: Taipei Times

The head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Shao Qiwei, pictured here, has said the country’s fast-developing tourism industry is expected to boost the hotel sector.

He said this will mean about 200,000 new hotels, resorts and guesthouses are likely to be built by 2015.

Addressing a seminar on domestic and international hotels’ groups, he said the new structures will include about 10,000 star-rated hotels. The number of five-star hotels in the country is expected to rise from 361 to 500.

Shao Qiwei said, ‘The World Tourism Organization has forecast that China will grow into a huge tourism market, and have 100 million each of inbound and outbound visitors and 2.8 billion domestic tourists by 2015.’

The booming tourism market has created the need for new hotels and other infrastructure facilities.

The general manager of Traders Hotel at China World Trade Center in Beijing, Xin Tao, said Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts plan to open five new facilities in the country this year, and at least 13 more in big cities such Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an in the near future. That is at least 40 new hotels in the country by 2011.

She said, ‘The Olympic Games has brought us unlimited business opportunities and the increase of leisure, as well as business, travel in China will add to the appeal of hotel operators.’

The CNTA has forecast that investment from home and abroad into hotels will hit RMB340 billion ($47.14 billion) between 2006 and 2010.

The hotel sector was one of the first to be opened up in China, with Jianguo Hotel in Beijing being the first foreign-invested hotel to be approved by the State Council in 1979.

Since then, 67 hotel brands of 41 international groups have entered the country and are managing 516 hotels at present.

By the end of last year there were more than 14,000 star-rated hotels, 100 times more than in 1978.
Source: China Daily

For the first time ever, 31 leading Chinese tourism officials met with more than three dozen U.S. state tourism directors during a day long summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, to explore ways for the two countries to increase cooperation on travel-related matters.

In 2006, according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, China and the U.S. shared a total of 3.68 million visits, (this includes visitors to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). But with the rapidly growing exchange between the two countries in trade, culture, education and health care, tourism exchange between the both countries has a great potential and a bright future.

The summit also explored ways to improve structures between the national tourism administrations of the two countries. Efforts were made to actively explore opportunities for cooperation and exchange among the Chinese provinces and the American states.

Roger J. Dow, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Travel Industry Association and seen in our illustration, based in Washington, DC. said, ‘We can learn a lot from each other. During the next 10 years, the amount of travelers from both countries is expected to grow significantly. It makes sense that we explore ways to encourage travel to our respective countries.’

The summit was arranged by the Travel Industry Association (TIA), in conjunction with the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). The National Council of State Tourism Directors, an industry council housed within and administrated by TIA, also participated in the summit.
Source: Hospitality News

To give an idea of the size of the interest in travel, there has recently been a three-day 2007 Domestic Travel Fair in Suzhou. The exhibition area covered 35,000 square meters, with 1,935 exhibition stands. 1,788 enterprises on display. Visitors were fairly evenly split between professionals and members of the public and, in all, there were some 80,000 visitors.

That is a major commercial success.

The National Bureau of Tourism is promoting rural tourism which is a good thing as the cities approach capacity. This idea, perhaps, started in Suzhou. Two years ago, Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Tourism began to regulate the rural tourism market. As you can see from the illustration, used much larger than normal, its tourism industry starts from a pretty solid basis of scenic beauty.

According to Shen Wenjuan, President of Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Tourism, the idea is ‘adjusting measures to local conditions,’ organically combining tourism with agriculture and working towards marketable concepts such as ‘one area with one character,’ ‘one town with one product,’ ‘one village with one landscape’ and ‘one household with one business.’

All of which can be taken too far and result in a strait-jacketed approach to tourism that rarely works. However, it does give a framework on which to build.

Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Tourism set aside a fund of RMB1.8 million for provincial and municipal tourism project construction. Some of the villages have been major successes.

Tangli Village completed the overall planning of Piaomiao scenic spots and built two agricultural family restaurants and a village inn.
Huqiao Village designed an ‘Independent Agricultural Development Park’ and an ‘Agricultural Tourism & Fishing Area,’ for which they have been partially funded.

It probably is not there yet. Much needs to be done. But this approach to rural tourism seems, on the face of it, a natural and intelligent way of extending China’s tourism.
Source: China Economic Net

The tourism ministers of China, South Korea and Japan have signed the Qingdao Declaration on exchange, cooperation and the common development of the tourism industry.

Under the declaration, a mechanism will be introduced to allow non-governmental tour agencies to meet, exchange ideas and implement their governments’ decisions.

Cooperation on tourism in the region was formerly limited to talks between governments, and there was no platform for tour companies to have their say. Bringing it down to the lower, commercial, level probably means that there will more meaningful co-operation.

The ministers also agreed to develop tour packages that would encompass leading attractions in the three nations. At the inaugural ministers’ meeting in Japan last year, it was agreed to try and boost tourist traffic within the three countries from 12 million in 2005 to 17 million by 2010.

Steady progress has been made, with the figure last year reaching 13.8 million, up 11% on 2005. Statistics show that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan and South Korea has grown rapidly in recent years.
Source: China Daily

Bruce Bommarito, vice president of international market development for the Travel Industry Association in the United States said of the tourist market from China to the USA and shown on the right, said, ‘In the next 10 years, it will probably dwarf any overseas market we may have, with the potential to dwarf all overseas markets combined.’

The number of Chinese who travel outside their homeland each year is expected to nearly triple to 100-million by 2020, and American cities and businesses are positioning themselves to profit from what they hope will be a tourist boom. They are establishing offices in China and lobbying the government to ease restrictions on travel to the United States.

While the number of Chinese visitors has been increasing as yet it is not a flood. Far from it. 320, 000 Chinese — 1.5% of overseas visitors — traveled to the United States in 2006. Of the Chinese who left the mainland, fewer than one in 100 headed for the United States. But many American entrepreneurs think that number could soon explode.

Rising disposable income has made travel an increasingly attainable luxury, and one that is often viewed as a status symbol.
Source: St Petersburg Times

Two hotel connected forums due, one in Shanghai, the other in Beijing.

On April 11 in Shanghai Interval International is organizing the Vacation Ownership Investment Conference (VOIC) at the St Regis Hotel which is shown here. Topics including timesharing, fractional ownership, private residence clubs, and condo-hotels.

Meanwhile IFCOT (International Forum on Chinese Outbound Tourism) will start May 13, 2007, in Beijing. IFCOT has become known as the top conference for the China (PRC) outbound market. This event receives support from PATA, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), China Tourism Association (CTA) and World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Major hotel brands have set their sights on Asia as the next big market for the lodging industry. Andrew Cosslett, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group, the world’s largest hotelier which also operates Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels, said at an industry conference held in Los Angeles that InterContinental ‘is investing in our brands and diversifying geographically.’ He said it is already the top hotel company in China.

Steven Rudnitsky, president and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide hotel group, which also operates such brands as Days Inn and Ramada said, ‘China is an enormous opportunity for us.’ He said China’s first Wyndham hotel is slated to open later this year and the company’s Super 8 economy chain has proven particularly popular.

Andrew Cosslett said China’s government has ‘a long-term mission’ to manage social development. The plans include infrastructure projects and airline routes linking rural areas with China’s developed eastern coast. He said, ‘They want to be, and will be, the dominant economic force on this planet for the next 50 years.’
Source: Reuters

The first pan-industry conference on bilateral tourism relations between China and Europe – China: The Future of Travel – organised with ChinaContact takes place on Monday 6 November on the opening day of the World Travel Market which is being held in London.

The conference will bring together government and industry players from the outbound and inbound sectors in Europe and China. From memory, no other country has ever been given a complete day, leave alone the first day, at this important conference.

Fiona Jeffery, Managing Director of World Travel Market, said, ‘Despite the fact that China is forecast to become the world’s top tourist destination and the major tourist source market by 2020, much around China’s tourism industry remains shrouded in mystery.

That is why this conference is crucial to professionals wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities and how to go about conducting business with the Chinese. This is a conference and a subject which no one in travel and tourism can afford to ignore.’

One of the main subjects covered will be the new hotels which can provide new product to be sold in Europe.
Source: Online travel