ITB China News 2018 - Day 3 Edition

6 ITB CHINA CONFERENCE
East-West Exchange
EU-China Tourism Year Under Spotlight
Philip C. Wolf
Founder, PhocusWright
PHILIP WOLF
ON ITB CHINA
Philip C. Wolf, host of the EU-China
panel at this year’s ITB China
event, has a long background
with ITB, dating back to his time
at the helm of PhocusWright.
We asked him what his thoughts
were about this year’s edition of
the show in China.
This year’s growth in exhibition space
of over 50% year-on-year is exceptional.
But ITB’s organisers, Messe Berlin, have
a certain way of running trade shows.
There’s a quality standard there, and
all these appointments, so it’s not just
producing a show, but making sure all
the different constituents that attend
get some value out of it.
As ITB China is an official
partner of the EU-China
Tourism Year, the topic has
very much been under the
spotlight over the past couple
of days. On Day One of the
show, Philip C. Wolf, founder
of Phocuswright, moderated
a conference on the topic,
attended by five high ranking
officials from different sectors:
• Yiyi Jiang, Head of
International Tourism
Research, China Tourism
Academy
• Raimonds Aleksejenko,
Deputy State Secretary,
Ministry of Economics of the
Republic of Latvia
• Bojan Pavlek, First Secretary,
EU Delegation to China
• Paavo Virkkunen, Executive
Director, Business Finland
Oy & Head of Visit Finland
• And Pierre Coenegrachts,
Deputy Director, Wallonia
Belgium Tourism Board
One of the biggest obstacles
to the growth of Chinese
tourist numbers into Europe is
that of visa issuance – a topic
addressed by the panel.
Bojan Pavlek said he believed
more visa centres around
China, where Chinese citizens
could place their applications,
would help the situation,
adding, “This would of course
lower the cost for visas and the
time required for visas.”
Raimonds Aleksejenko said he
believed relieving the issue will
take time, but there are ways
to move forward. “We are
working with Alibaba Group.
It is not about legislation. It’s
about user experience. And
with a partner like Alibaba,
they do a lot of work instead
of the client.”
Aleksejenko went on to
explain that the use of Chinese
payment systems such as
Alipay is important, especially
for small destinations.
Paavo Virkkunen said that
“Convenience and ease are
those words we are all craving
for. Convenience and ease
in visa issues, in payment
methods, in connectivity, in
combinability. I think those
are the elements we really
need, to create new creative
digital platforms, which will
ease our work and life very
much.”
Pierre Coenegrachts said that
in Belgium, his organisation
is working with partners
to implement the Chinese
WeChat payment system:
“More and more, maybe we
will come to WeChat payments
in Europe.”
Can the ECTY really going to
make a difference? According
to Bojan Pavlek, “It’s just a
start. It has to be seen as a kickoff,
as a platform, to gather
all the actors in the tourism
industry, to make a European
market more attractive to
Chinese people, but also not
to forget an important fact,
and that’s sustainability of
tourism. The whole idea is
to have this discussion about
how to attract Chinese tourists
and vice-versa. Where can
we find synergies, and also,
basically, that the industry
itself engages and also adapts
to the market”
The session you moderated was about
EU-China relations, and the EU-China
Year. What was the upshot of this?
Only 2% of Europe’s inbound
international travellers come from
China. So, it really begs the question.
It’s kind of like unemployment. Is
there a natural growth rate of Chinese
tourists to Europe? And then how much
of a catalyst will this really be? Because
every other country in the world is
trying to lure these tourists. From my
perspective, it’s really interesting,
because there is this healthy global
competition for international travellers,
especially from China. As the Asian
economies prosper, that means more
outbound travellers. Travel and tourism
is like one of the world’s great balancing
acts. Every issue is involved, from raw
census practicalities, the economy, you
need to be of a certain income level
before you can travel, then you have
the politics, the visas, environmental
issues, capacity issues… it’s really like
“the great equaliser”
ITB CHINA NEWS • Friday 18 th May 2018
www.itb-china-news.com