A New Training Season Begins! WTCF International Tourist Destinations Promotion and Marketing Training Program 2018 Kicks off

On April 9, 2018, the four-day “WTCF International Tourist Destinations Promotion and Marketing Training Program 2018” began in Beijing. More than 20 people participated in this training program, including WTCF’s city member representatives from Anuradhapura, Riga, Nairobi, Washington, London, Seville, Belgrade, Berlin, Jakarta, and Victoria; and representatives from the embassies and consulates of the U.S., Costa Rica, Panama, and so on.

The WTCF International Tourist Destinations Promotion and Marketing Training Program 2018

Chinese outbound tourism market is growing rapidly, and it provides innumerable opportunities for tourist destination cities. In order to better serve WTCF members and help our members develop a deeper understanding of China’s outbound tourism market, the WTCF Secretariat once again organized the training program on International Tourist Destination Promotion and Marketing in Beijing.

WTCF Executive Deputy Secretary-General Li Baochun delivering a welcome speech at the opening ceremony of the training program

WTCF Executive Deputy Secretary-General Li Baochun delivered a welcome speech at the opening ceremony of the training program, and welcomed the WTCF member representatives participating in this year’s training program. He introduced the development history and achievements of WTCF, development situation and trend of the global tourism market, and the member services of WTCF.

After collecting the suggestions and ideas from the participants, WTCF carefully prepared lessons for the training program. The training program has such themes: China’s Tourism in the Global Perspective; The Introduction to Market Research on Chinese Outbound Tourists Consumption; How to Attract and Serve the Chinese Outbound Tourist; The Characteristics and Development Trend of OTA Sector in China; Marketing Destinations to Outbound Chinese Travelers - Methods, Channels, Trends and Case Studies; Key to Success: How to Conduct Tourism Marketing and Tourism Brand Promotion; Chinese Tourism Market from a Big Data Perspective; MICE; Status Quo and Development Trend of Chinese Outbound Tourism, etc.

Song Rui, Specially Appointed Expert of WTCF Expert Committee, and Director of the Tourism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), lecturing about the “China’s Tourism in the Global Perspective”

Wu Xiaoran, Ph.D., Executive Director of Ipsos, lecturing about “The Introduction to Market Research on Chinese Outbound Tourists (City) Consumption”

Gao Tianming, Contract Research Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a visiting professor at Nankai University, lecturing about “How to Attract and Serve the Chinese Outbound Tourist”

Xin Shoudong, Director of Supply Chain Management in Tuniu, lecturing about “The Characteristics and Development Trend of OTA Sector in China”

The lecturers are all senior professionals, directors, and experts in the tourism industry, and include Song Rui, Director of the Tourism Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Wu Xiaoran, Ph.D., Executive Director of Ipsos; Gao Tianming, contract research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a Visiting Professor at Nankai University; Xin Shoudong, Director of Supply Chain Management in Tuniu; Cao Zhigang, Dragon Trail team leader, co-founder of two travel meta-search engines; He Shengkang, Counselor of World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) Secretariat; Zhang Yuan, Overseas Project Manager in Destination Marketing Department of Ctrip.com; Ma Xiaoqiu, Co-founder of Grand China MICE; and Zou Tongqian, PhD of Nanjing University, Professor of Tourism etc.

Participant Patricia Rodríguez Hölkemeyer, Costa Rican Ambassador to China, actively interacting with the lecturer in the class

Aside from to the rich classroom lessons, WTCF also worked with leading tourism companies and tourism media to provide on-site case studies, visits to tourist sites, and have face-to-face meetings with tourism operators, WTCF members, and tourism experts for the participants. The aim is to guide the participants to have a more systematic understanding of China’s tourism market development.

Senior Marketing Executive Mavreen Pouponneau from Seychelles says that it is the first time that she has participated in the WTCF training program. Seychelles is a beautiful country, with a visa-free policy for all nations. She hopes that through this training program, she can gain inspiration in marketing Seychelles tourism resources to Chinese tourists, and hoped that more Chinese tourists can visit Seychelles. Louise Maher from London, UK, speaks of her wish to truly understand Chinese tourists through the training program, so that they can improve the diversity of their tourism products, and finally provide Chinese tourists with more high-quality options.

The participants take a group photo

WTCF provides the training service with the aim of increasing the understanding of China’s tourism market and Chinese tourists’ demands for the member cities outside of China, and of boosting their communication, contacts, and collaboration with China’s tourism enterprises and tourism media. Meanwhile, its aim is also to strengthen the understanding and measurement of the global tourism market for WTCF’s Chinese city members, and assist in better dealing with overseas destination marketing. It is the third time that WTCF has held the International Tourist Destinations Promotion and Marketing Training Program in Beijing, and more than 100 participants have graduated from the training program since the beginning of the first training program. This training program is held 2-3 times annually.