ASIA REGION 29 Beautiful
ASIA REGION 29 Beautiful China Initiative to be Launched Wednesday at ITB Berlin China continues to experience strong growth in tourism, thanks to increased impetus with the Silk Road project and new promotional initiatives – such as a new branding campaign being launched on Wednesday. Li Yaying Director of FVA China According to the director of FVA China (Chinese tourism board in Germany) Li Yaying, southern provinces are growing fastest: “In Yunnan and Sichuan, the figures of tourists increased by over 10% last year. Also the Silk Road becomes more and more popular due to a better infrastructure built in the last couple of years in the provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Shaanxi. Provinces like Fujian, Anhui and Zhejiang benefit from new direct flights from Europe and also increased their tourism figures over average.” “We are very happy to introduce our new logo ‘Beautiful China’,” added Mr Li. “We are planning a ceremony on Wednesday with over 200 invited guests to reveal it.” New air connections are opening in coming months. In May, Air China will fly directly from Frankfurt to Chengdu, and Finnair is establishing a new route to Xi’an. Hall 26C Stand 311 Japan Fights Back and Targets New Record Japan’s tourism authority, the JNTO, is forecasting major growth in tourism again this year, targeting a new record of 10 million visitors. Hideaki Nakazawa JNTO director Since 2003, when the “Visit Japan” campaign was launched, visitor numbers have grown from 5.2 million to a record 8.61 million in 2010. Discounting the tragic events of 2011 that wreaked havoc with tourism that year, visits in 2012 were back up to 8.27 million; almost back to the record of 2010. Speaking with ITB Berlin News, JNTO director Hideaki Nakazawa says new local destinations are increasing in popularity: “As the total number of foreign visitors grow, many of them visit the ‘off-the beaten track’ areas as well as the ‘Golden Route’ (Nikko, Tokyo – Hiroshima). This tendency is very good for better activating the local economy.” Nakazawa-san says new air routes from Europe and other centres will play a big part in stimulating the new growth: “KLM is going to inaugurate from April a new flight between Amsterdam and Fukuoka, Kyushu Island, Japan. This will be the first air route to connect Europe directly with Fukuoka. Not only JNTO Frankfurt office but also JNTO’s London and Paris offices are going to make much of this occasion to promote Japan by holding a big campaign in 2013 in Germany, UK, Netherland and France.” Fukuoka Prefecture and Kyushu Island are participating for the first time in ITB Berlin, on the Japan Stand, to further promote the Kyushu Island in European market. Hall 26A Stand 129 ITB BERLIN NEWS • Wednesday 6 th March 2013
