CITS Buyers’ Expectations Reflect Clout of Chinese Buying Market

Other CITS buyers like Shi Li Qin, the department manager for its Inner Mongolia branch, who serves clients in energy and construction industries based mainly in Mongolian cities including Hohhot, Baotou and Ordos, expects incentive travel to be at the top of their MICE requests. “I am on the lookout for unique venues and partnership services both internationally and domestically. North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and island destinations are expected to be popular international destinations with my clients, while Hainan, Yunnan and Fujian are the domestic favourites.”

Shi’s counterpart in Beijing, Account Director Feng Ling manages more diversified clientele in industries ranging from telecommunications, medical, beauty, FMCG, construction, chamber of commerce, MNCs and state-owned enterprises. Her portfolio also spans beyond Beijing to include Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities across China.

Buyers of other CITS branches including Heilongjiang’s Director Guo Qinghua and Jiujiang’s Vice General Manager Xiong Xiaoyu serve government agencies, associations, medium-sized enterprises, and FITs in their respective cities. For Guo, whose bigger projects last year comprised of groups of over 100 people to Korea and Thailand, anticipates South-East Asia and Yunnan to be popular this year. Adds Guo, “Self drive tours is also something I think will be of immediate interest to my clients.”

In 2013, Xiong successfully organised incentive travel, business exhibition and other MICE projects averaging 20 to 30 people or more. His largest project was a luxury tour at Chongqing’s Three Gorges for close to 400 participants from an electrical wholesale distributor in Jiangxi. Handling corporate travel arrangements, such as golfing trips, for C-level personnel from real estate companies is also part of his portfolio. “For 2014, we already have confirmed bookings for trips to Dubai and South Africa. I also expect significant interest for Nordic destinations (Iceland, Finland, Norway), eastern Europe (Hungary, Bulgaria) as well as Canada in North America,” elaborates Xiong.

For CITS’s Qingdao buyer Yu Zhong, MICE procurement is a core target this year, especially in terms of meetings and incentive travel. Citing major client Haier Group, Yu says “With an account like Haier, the whole country stands to benefit whenever they hold a seasonal product launch as the campaign literally spans across all the cities in China. Hoteliers and land tour operators are direct beneficiaries since accommodation and organised tours are a definite part of the client requirements.”

China International Travel Service (CITS) International MICE will be leading a delegation of 30 CITS buyers whose buying responsibilities span across all 31 administrative divisions of Mainland China, and encompass both outbound and domestic MICE procurement. Collectively, CITS buyers represent a wide and diverse range of corporate, government and association clients in China with connections to more than 1,400 tour operators and travel agencies in all parts of the world.

As whole, CITS’ clientele encompasses an extremely large spectrum of China’s buying demand. Explains Zhang Jian, Executive GM of CITS International MICE, “As the number 1 brand-name in China’s tourist industry with a dedicated MICE division, our pulse on China’s inbound, outbound and domestic demand is unparalleled. We also have access to the largest network of tour operators and travel agencies across the country, ensuring that our team has every capability of attracting quality Chinese buyers to participate at IT&CM China.”

Commenting on the effectiveness of IT&CM China as a sourcing platform for Chinese buyers, Jiujiang’s Xiong says, “IT&CM China is an important platform to get in touch with a wide range of top suppliers both internationally and domestically. Thanks to the resources we obtained from the event, we were able to successfully organize a business travel group to Korea last year. We certainly look forward to participating at the upcoming 2014 event.”

Shi from Inner Mongolia agrees, “By attending IT&CM China, we can offer our clients a wider range of destinations, products and services to choose from.”

The 30 attending CITS buyers will be joined by 50 MICE buyers from the newly formed China MICE Committee (CMC) comprising leading MICE buyers from alliance members of close to 40 established travel agencies across China. Members include CYTS International Convention and Exhibition, China Comfort Travel Group, GZL International Travel Service - Business Incentive Travel Company and Xiamen trip Exhibition Business Services. The committee’s presence at IT&CM China affirms the event as China’s leading MICE sourcing platform for incentives, corporate and association meetings. A total of 480 Chinese buyer delegates are expected to attend IT&CM China 2014. Registrations for Chinese buyers will remain open till end March.

For more information on IT&CM China, visit www.itcmchina.com