2 NEWS PREFACE Richard
2 NEWS PREFACE Richard Barnes The “Electronic Babel Fish”: Bringing the World Together The more one travels, the more it becomes frustrating not to be able to communicate with local people beyond the very basics. Those who’ve read, or listened to, the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will know that the legendary Babel Fish is an alien fish that when placed in one’s ear, basically performs instant translations, feeding on your brainwaves to know in what language you think. Strangely, in Douglas Adams’ book, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, causes more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation. Today, we would like to believe that better communication and understanding might just be one of the secrets to global peace and cultural exchange. ITB CHINA NEWS is a CLEVERDIS Publication. 65 av. Jules Cantini - Tour Méditerranée, 13006 Marseille, France • Tel: + 33 442 77 46 00 • Fax: + 33 442 77 46 01 • SARL capitalised at e155,750 • VAT FR 95413604471 • RCS Marseille 413 604 471 • info@cleverdis.com • www.cleverdis.com. • info@itb-china-news.com • www.itb-china-news.com To wit, something very much like an electronic Babel Fish was revealed at ITB China, and it impressed the jury of the ITB China Start-up Award so much that it was one of the two winners. It is reported to be the “world’s first 1+2 earphone translator for faceto-face bilingual conversations”. Timekettle (www.wt2.co) developed the so-called WT2 Translator, a smart and wearable real-time translating earphone. The company, based in Shenzhen, China, has pioneered a number of technical breakthroughs and has received sufficient domestic and international patents in the past one year. As a comprehensive AI start-up team, the company brings customers and commercial institutions a “colourful travel experience”. We believe this kind of technical breakthrough will be hugely beneficial to the travel world, and can’t wait to see it in use! • Publisher: Gérard Lefebvre • Managing Director: Jean-François Pieri • Publishing Director: Jean-Guy Bienfait • Project Manager: Wenchao Wang • Chief Analyst: Richard Barnes • Editorial coordination: Yingying Deng • Marketing Manager: Nathalie Meissner • Art Director: Hélène Beunat • With the participation of: Bettina Badon, Naila Ben Ghorbal, Borhan Moussa, Finn-Georg Sander >To contact them : first name.last name@itb-china-news.com • Cover: © Messe Berlin GmbH Registration of Copyright May 2018 Information presented in this publication is purely indicative in order to illustrate subjects contained therein. No guarantee can be given as to the accuracy of data or content at time of printing and thus the latter should not be used for professional or commercial ends. 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Cleverdis assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements during the period of publication. Photo Credits and Copyright: All Rights Reserved. ITB China 2018 ITB China 20 2018 edition of the show goes The goal of organisers at this year’s ITB China to simply make it “bigger and better” was met – in all respects. Visitors, exhibitors and buyers all claimed to be satisfied with ITB China 2018. In its second year, the success of ITB China is reflected in the heavy demand for floor space and a significant increase of visitors. Compared to the inaugural event in 2017, gross exhibition space as well as the attendees rose by 50%, underpinning the fact that ITB China is continuing its success story. “With its 700 exhibiting companies from 80 countries, 15,000 attendees participating, and China becoming the driving force for the growth of the global travel industry, ITB China is establishing itself as the must-attend event for anyone looking to establish a strong presence here. The results are remarkable considering it is only the second show. The performance is a strong base which promises even more growth next year”, said Dr Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin. The organisers extended the hosted buyer program this year. In all, there were around 800 buyers at the event this year, an increase of over 30% over the 2017 edition. Diversity was very high again with Chinese buyers coming from over 300 different companies throughout the nation, representing the full range of China’s largest industry players. 73% of the Chinese Leisure, MICE and Corporate buyers came from mainland China (outside Shanghai), 24% from Shanghai province and the remaining 3% from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. More than 15,000 prescheduled appointments maximised business opportunities of both exhibitors and buyers. The organisers also launched a ITB CHINA NEWS • Monday 28 th May 2018 www.itb-china-news.com
NEWS 3 IT’S MY WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS 18: Bigger and Better well beyond expectations – for attendees and exhibitors completely new matchmaking system perfectly catering to the needs of both exhibitors and buyers using desktop, mobile, APP or WeChat interfaces. TRAVEL PROS LOVE THE EVENT Leading trade professionals present at the show were singing its praises. Lu Jun, Managing Director, China Travel Group Shanghai said, “ITB China was very well organised and set high standards in terms of the quality of both exhibitors and buyers. The show displays set off the exhibition and conference just perfectly. As a member of the China National Travel Service, I felt honored to attend this year’s show. I believe that this will surely lay a solid foundation for our future communication and cooperation with domestic and foreign counterparts, which we expect will come very soon.” Expectations for the event’s future are particularly bullish. Lin Yan, Senior Vice President, Utour Group stated, “As one of the largest travel operators in China we have gained a lot from ITB China. We expect and believe that ITB China will become the world’s largest and most successful tourism exhibition. The reason why ITB Berlin is the largest travel show to date is that Germany was the largest source market back then, with 70 million German travellers going abroad every year given its population of 80 million. Since 2016, China has become the world’s largest source country, so ITB China implies exceptional potential. ITB China expanded 50% over the last year and the event has developed rapidly. Both exhibitors and buyers are highly dedicated, especially buyers, which shows that the organizers of ITB China boasts in-depth knowledge on the Chinese market. Exhibitors presented highly differentiated products.” ITB China focuses exclusively on the Chinese tourism industry with International companies and Chinese companies meeting with Chinese trade visitors. The exhibitors came from 80 countries as far as Argentina, Brazil, Chile or the Middle East, such as UAE as well as partner destination Finland. EUROPE UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT ITB China was an official partner event of the EU China Tourism Year, a major initiative launched jointly by the European Commission and the Chinese government. The exhibition featured a high number of individual national pavilions from across Europe. In addition, the European Travel Commission had a strong exhibition presence on the show floor showcasing a multitude of European destinations. Eduardo Santander, Executive Director, European Travel Commission was present at ITB China for the second year running, stating, “Unity is strength. Europe needs to remain competitive in China. Only through deeper ITB China 2018 © Messe Berlin ITB CHINA NEWS • Monday 28 th May 2018
