The third ITB China successfully closed today in Shanghai with around 17,000 attendees, a plus of 2,000 compared to last year. Buyers, trade visitors and exhibitors reported positive business results and experienced a unique gathering of the Chinese travel industry from 15 to 17 May 2019. The ITB China Conference, co-organized by TravelDaily China, has also maintained strong attendance figures of 4,000 in total, with positive feedback about the quality of speakers and insights generated from the sessions. The increase in the number of overall attendees was clearly noticeable in the exhibition halls and in the conference areas on all three days of the fair.
In all, there were about 850 Chinese top buyers at the event. Their share significantly increased in terms of buyers coming from second and third tier cities, running 40 percent in total and proving the show’s acceptance in the Chinese travel market. Another highlight of the conference was the ITB China Startup Award taking place for the third time this year. This year SeeVov convinced the jury with its video based trip planning platform. First time exhibitor Italy was the official partner destination of ITB China 2019 and has recorded a successful first attendance. It co-hosted the Opening Dinner one day prior to the show, attended among others by the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Food, Forestry Policies and Tourism, H.E. Sen. Gian Marco Centinaio, Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip or Feng Bin, Chairman of Utour. The demand for customized and themed trips is rising, with Island Travel, Adventure Travel, Culture Travel and Sports Travel being right at the top of Chinese travel bucket lists according to the results of the ITB China Travel Trends Report. This year a broad range of 800 companies and organisations coming from 84 countries presented their products to the Chinese travel industry, reflecting ITB China has become more international and established itself as the not-to-miss event for the Chinese travel industry within three years only.
“We have set out to build the show as the key knowledge platform in China by boosting even more content and innovations this year and put a lot of efforts into increasing our networking event schedule. Overall, this year’s premieres, such as the customized travel area, new conference topics or the ITB China Travel Trends Report showed that ITB China has created unstoppable momentum and as such, is clearly bringing back optimism to the industry,” said Dr. Martin Buck, Senior Vice President, Travel & Logistics, Messe Berlin.
Ms Maria Elena Rossi, Marketing and Promotion Director, Italian National Tourism Board) said: “We are investing in the Chinese market which is becoming very interesting for us as it has been constantly growing by 10 percent each year. Attending ITB China gives us the opportunity to be directly in touch with the main players of the Chinese market as they are all presented here and we can meet them directly. ITB China allows us to be able to connect with the top–players of the Chinese tourism market in a relatively short time. It has been a success for us being here so far because of the important partners and contacts we made. We and our partners had also an extraordinary exposure through all the media opportunities that ITB China offers.”
This year’s conference attracted 4,000 attendees and had an enhanced conference line-up, featuring 120 speakers and 70 topics to be held in two conference rooms and the presentation hub. The new conference sessions about Hotel Marketing & Distribution, IT & Travel and Customized Travel were also very well received by the attendees. China’s travel think tank, ITB China Conference, is the Chinese knowledge platform, connecting the Chinese with the international travel industry while covering the whole bandwidth of the sector. The ITB China Start-up Award 2019 was won by SeeVoov, a social, interactive, video based trip planning platform, offering a unique visual-based approach to digital travel. The company, based in Israel, enables tourism companies to significantly increase ancillary revenue through hotel booking, flights, attraction tickets, restaurant reservations, as well as provide their users with unique value added video entertaining content to enhance their travels. Other presenting companies included Air Black Box, Nobility Technology Group, the Robins Barrier-free Travel, Pointmark and TravelRight.
For the second year in succession ITB China and Qyer.com hosted the IT’S MY WORLD TRAVEL AWARD holding an awards ceremony and networking lunch for exhibitors to meet with travel bloggers (KOL). The award was presented in six categories, among others following winners were announced: Tino-Leung (Top 10 Travelers of the Year), Jerusalem, Israel (Top 10 Emerging Destinations of the Year), Tandem Skydiving at Skydive Dubai Palm (Top 10 Amazing Travel Experiences), zuzuche.com (To 10 Intelligent Travel Transportation Providers), Visa (Top 10 Intelligent Local Travel Service Providers) or Stephanie Ye (Top 10 Pioneers of Travel & Tourism).
With the launch of the ITB China Buyers Circle – a nationwide buyers’ community for all professional Chinese travel buyers – the organizers expanded the presence and activities of the show far beyond the fair itself. More than 30 of China’s leading travel agencies and travel agents from more than 400 different agencies have joined the circle by becoming Founding and Segment Partners. Throughout the year the circle will also be identifying the trends and developments of the Chinese source-market in the form of the yearly ITB China Travel Trends Report. In cooperation with Kairos Future, the report was built on insights sourced through members of the ITB China Buyers Circle, complemented with the analysis of online data.
Ms Wang Hui, Vice President, Caissa Tourism Group: “In order to get the newest first-hand information about tourism industry trends, Caissa attends ITB in Shanghai and Berlin every year. ITB China helps us in better reaching different target groups, providing better services to our partners and customers, and developing new travel products. At ITB China we can always discover new topics like adventure travel, traveling with children etc. The ITB China Conference is a great information source about the travel industry too. ITB China allows us to dive deep into the market and better customize our products. Every year we invite partners to ITB China and recommend the show to other companies. ITB China stands for an international and high-level travel brand choosing both exhibitors and buyers very carefully, which allows for a perfect matchmaking. We will definitely attend ITB China in 2020.”
Since its inception ITB China has relied on strong industry partners. This year, the organizers established and built new partnerships with Wyndham Hotel & Resorts, Air China, China Tourism Association, The Adventure Trade Travel Association, JTB, The Bahamas, Israel, Shouqi or Ctrip. There was raising attention shown by the media at this year’s show with over 300 (2018: 260) registered Chinese and international journalists reporting from ITB China.
ITB China hosted several new and established networking events during and after the show to encourage dialogue and exchanges between all ITB China attendees: The Grand Opening Gala Dinner one day prior to the show attracting more than 600 guests, the It’s my World Travel Award Lunch in partnership with Qyer.com gathering bloggers and Key Opinion Leaders from all over China as well as the third ITB China Cruise Night powered by Ctrip. In addition, the organizers launched a whole series of topic-based networking lunches during the trade show, providing dedicated exchange platforms covering topics such as customised travel, travel technology as well as MICE and corporate travel.
The date for ITB China 2020 is set: Wednesday to Friday, 13 to 15 May 2020 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre. Early committed exhibitors who registered on-site ITB China this year, could benefit from an Early Bird discount of 15 percent on their stand rental fees.
Tags: china, ITB China, ITB China Startup Award
