ITB 2014 discusses traveling Chinese on Hospitality Day

Beijing-The International hotel industry players sat together at a workshop panel on the 48th Berlin International Tourism Fair (ITB) Hospitality Day, to exchange experience on their sharing target group: the travelling Chinese.

As part of the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest and most important trade conference in Europe, the ITB Hospitality Day began on March 6 with renowned experts discussing current discourse on the hotel industry.

A workshop panel named Quality The Chinese Way brought interesting industry players together to discuss how China's second wave of tourists challenges hoteliers anew at ITB Berlin 2014, featuring high-ranking speakers.

Host of the workshop and director of China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, Wolfgang Georg Arlt, opened the panel by saying that China tourism with strong growth has been the biggest outbound source market in the world since 2012 and stressed that the growth for the spending is even stronger.

However, Wolfgang denied the existence of the typical Chinese outbound tourists, adding that the rising self-organized Chinese travelers already account for about a third of the market.

He also added that Chinese travelers from other west countries or Chinese students studying in west countries could also be guests of western hotels.

Meanwhile, he said the changing shopping habits of Chinese from brand to lifestyle, from sightseeing to experience breaks the outdated images of Chinese outbound markets.

Darren Gearing, Vice President and General Manager at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, shared his experience at the panel that having mandarin speaking staff and good Chinese food are minimum requirements, while laying stress on importance of Chinese social media.

Gu Yufei,manager of purchasing department of Caissa Tourist AG, said Chinese outbound travelers are repeated travelers with abroad study experience and tend be younger people of age 25-40.

She also named three key points of China's second wave of tourists,which are locations, features of the hotels and social media.

Luis De Olmo, Executive Vice President Asia-Pacific Melia Hotels International, said there is a lot needs to be learned about Chinese outbound tourism market, as the western hotels should adapt to the needs of Chinese travelers.

ITB Berlin, the world's largest travel trade show, attracts some 10,147 exhibitors from 189 countries this year to present their products and services on a display area covering 160,000 square meters from March 5 to 9.