WTCF Successfully Held a Themed Forum at the WTM - "Pulse" China's Outbound Tourism Market

The World Travel Market (WTM 2018) was held at ExCeL London on November 5, 2018. World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) was invited to attend the event and host the "China Outbound Tourism Development Trend" forum, Relevant topics on the forum provide direction for the industry to understand China's outbound tourism market in depth and provide reference and assistance for relevant units and departments to better grasp the changes and development trends.

Representing WTCF, Li Baochun, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF; Julie Chappell, Managing Director, International Markets, London & Partners; Howard Zhang, Chief Editor, BBC News Chinese; Amy Wei, GM of International Train Ticketing, Ctrip Group; Zhang Yingbing, Head Office, China International Service Limited; and Filippo Del Corno, Deputy Mayor, Culture of Comune di Milano, were present to deliver the speech at the forum held that day.

Li Baochun, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of WTCF, discussed industry hot topics with city and destination representatives, travel agency executives, influential media, and industry experts during the forum. He introduced the Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2017-2018) to the attendees. This report is worked out by WTCF and Ipsos. Based on the consistency and continuity of survey content, it provides more information and covers more people. It aims to gain a deeper insight into the development trend of the Chinese outbound tourism market and consumer changes through a survey on the changes in the tourist market, thereby providing a reference for member cities and institutions.

General Manager of the International Marketing Department of the London Tourism Board, Julie Chappell, the Chinese Editor-in-Chief of the BBC, Howard Zhang, General Manager of the Ctrip International Train Ticket Business, Wei Rupu, Deputy General Manager of the China International Travel Service Association, Zhang Yingbing, and Deputy Mayor of Milan, Italy, Filippo Del Corno attended the forum that day.

WTM is one of the most prestigious trade fairs in the global tourism industry. It creates plenty of business opportunities and brings high-quality exchanges and cooperation for its clients. Around 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers, and international media visit WTM London every November and generates more than £2 billion worth of travel industry contracts.

As one of the fastest-growing international tourism organizations, WTCF not only proactively organized its members to participate in the WTM over the past several years, but it also held many thematic forums and shared its newest tourism research results, and won wide compliment. In 2015, WTCF was invited to attend the WTM, and won the annual tourism award---2015 “World Travel Leaders Award”, which was aimed at awarding the organization or individual that made an outstanding contribution to the development of the world tourism industry. During the WTM 2016, WTCF hosted the “Chinese Tourism Market Development Forum” and the WTCF Regional Meeting for Europe, and released the Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist (City) Consumption (2015-2016), and the Annual Report on Development of World Tourist Cities (2016). In 2017, WTCF released the UNWTO/WTCF City Tourism Performance Research report and the Report on World Tourism Economy Trends (2018).