10 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
10 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WE ARE VERY HAPPY THAT WE HAVE KEPT ON TRACK AND MANAGED TO DELIVER THE SAME HIGH-QUALITY DESPITE THE BIG GROWTH WE FACED IN ALL ASPECTS OF THE SHOW IN ITS SECOND EDITION David Axiotis General Manager, ITB China A Glimpse Over the Shoulder ITB China General Manager David Axiotis looks back at the show that was… Keeping the concept on track, sticking to the original concept, and maintaining the focus on the quality of the show It’s generally the first thing one asks at the end of a big show someone has organised… How did you feel about it? We put the question to ITB China General Manager, David Axiotis. I have a very good feeling. Already the feeling from the first show was very good. But we still paid a lot of attention to managing expectations, keeping the concept on track, sticking to the original concept, and maintaining the focus on the quality of the show, keeping it as high as we managed to set the bar on the first year. That was really the main focus for this, the second year: managing the growth but still keeping the quality of the show at the same level. This has of course been a challenge, with a 50% growth in exhibition space. And it’s not just the exhibition space. We grew the conference substantially for the second year with a second conference room. We significantly grew the networking programme. Last year we had the ITB China cruise night and this year we had four events, so two concurrently on every evening: the Party like a Finn evening, we had the cruise night again which was a big success, we introduced the European night, and we had a cooperation with Qyer.com, who organised a great gala dinner after their awards ceremony. All in all, we are very happy that we have kept on track and managed to deliver the same high-quality despite the big growth we faced in all aspects of the show in its second edition. You had some quite important new exhibitors this year. Please tell us a little more about them. We grew pretty much in all regions and segments, starting with Europe which we just talked about. Key exhibitors included Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Poland Lichtenstein, Malta, Slovakia and Hungary, just to mention a few. We grew in the Middle East region, and a big new newcomer this year was Israel, which was added to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, who had very big pavilions this year, even growing in size. We had a lot of newcomers from the Americas - especially the Latin American region, with Mexico, Panama, Peru, Argentina and Brazil, who for the first time with an impressive stand. All of them were new, major exhibitors, who chose ITB China as a trusted platform when starting or entering into the Chinese travel market. As opposed to other destinations that are closer to China and naturally have been working with the Chinese travel industry and networking with the big Chinese players for a longer time, I believe that for them, being so far away from China, they are still in an early phase of developing ties and products for the Chinese market… so we are very happy on that side as well. This was the EU-China Tourism Year and the link you made with them was very important. Tell me about that and how that pannedout during the show. Europe was our partner destination in year one, so Europe has been an important partner and supporter from the very start of ITB China. European exhibitors were very strongly represented at the first show already and the European segment grew a lot from the first to the second year. We were an official a partner event of the EU-China Tourism Year. It was therefore very fitting to have a European partner country this year for the show, with Finland. The destination is doing an amazing job when it comes to welcoming Chinese tourists and professionally developing the Chinese market. And that’s not just at a national tourism board level, but especially thanks to the cooperation with the national carrier airline, the airport on the national tourism board so all this was very fitting. Thanks to all of this, ITB China is truly a platform connecting the Chinese travel industry with the rest of the world ITB CHINA NEWS • Monday 28 th May 2018 www.itb-china-news.com
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 11 Curiosity at the Heart of Demand Dr Martin Buck, Vice President of Competence Centre Travel & Logistics Messe Berlin GmbH, on ITB China 2018 Looking back at the 2018 edition of ITB China, what have emerged as being the key elements of motivation for travellers from this part of the world? We put the question to Dr Martin Buck. The curiosity of the Chinese traveller is very important, and it is a great trigger for travel. This was already activated in a way here at the show by another innovation that David Axiotis (eds. General Manager, ITB China) introduced this year, which is our co-operation with a company called Qyer. Qyer, together with ITB China, invented the “It’s My World Travel Awards”. This is about incentivising people and products that are important when it comes to usergenerated content. Qyer is basically a user generated content platform with more than 88-million registered users. They distributed 50 awards for the most innovative traveller, the best travel product, and so on, and the room was packed. It was also really a partnership; not only about having Qyer as an exhibitor and us being the venue provider, but it’s a partnership, because they know perfectly well that we are the access to the products and they are the access to the demand so everything comes together very well, and we obviously are a very good platform to reflect it which is the reason for happiness. Anything particularly interesting that stood out for you this year? Event wise, what I found very spectacular was the big screen – the big backdrop – that we had at the opening ceremony, because this for me epitomises our capability to do a very impressive marketing activity embracing the local specifics, creating a “wow” effect, and I have to admit I’ve never seen something like this since I’ve been working for ITB. Another thing that impressed me was the presentation by the Chairman of Ctrip, James Liang. I asked the question how come China has a negative trade balance when it comes to incoming tourists to China versus outgoing tourists from China, comparing this balance with the US, UK or Turkey or even India. I asked what might be the reasons for this and what we might be able to do to change the situation. It was impressive how he represented the problem and how he explained the possible solutions, which shows the competence and expertise and the power a company like Ctrip has. So, having seen the presentation, you do not wonder why the company that was founded only in 1999 now has more than 10,000 employees and a market cap that is five times higher than the market cap of TUI in Germany. It shows that it’s not only about the size, it’s also about intelligence, and this guy walking around in sneakers and blue jeans shows you within five minutes what’s going on. This is a brilliant guy, and I have the feeling he’s not the only brilliant guy here at the show. You could say it’s our privilege coming from a country like Germany, just seeing how things are being developed in a new market like China. So, it’s the cultural and business exchange… It’s an exchange not just one way? No, exactly, it’s an exchange. It’s going in both directions, and I find it emotionally really very touching being a part of that process. I don’t want to compare it with the launch of the Saturn 5 rocket flying to the moon, but it goes in that direction. It also shows how humble we have to be compared to such a company. It seems evident that the Chinese are always eager to learn, and perhaps it would be good for us also to be more eager to learn in general. That’s also one of the secrets of why this show is going so well so far; because we are eager to learn. Both sides have to contribute something. We are very excited, and we are very happy, and we are looking very optimistically into the future here in China and indeed around the world Dr Martin Buck Senior Vice President, Competence Centre Travel & Logistics, Messe Berlin GmbH WE ARE THE ACCESS TO THE PRODUCTS AND THEY ARE THE ACCESS TO THE DEMAND… SO EVERYTHING COMES TOGETHER VERY WELL ITB CHINA NEWS • Monday 28 th May 2018
