Inaugural ITB China in May

Nearly 20 exhibitors from the Middle East region are expected to attend the event, scheduled to take place from May 10-12, 2017, at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Conference Center.

TT Bureau

The three-day event gathers international destinations, service and travel technology providers in Shanghai connecting them with handpicked Chinese buyers. In terms of the Middle East, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Boards have already registered with several other exhibitors from the region. ITB China is an international offshoot of one of Messe Berlin’s most successful trade fairs.

Interest in ITB China is high. Leading Chinese travel industry companies including Ctrip, Alittrip, Utour, Caissa and many others have already confirmed participation to the event in mid-May this year. Exhibitors are also pressing ahead with preparations.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is the strategic partner of the first ITB China. This was announced by ITB China’s organisers, Messe Berlin, and PATA, one of the world’s leading tourism associations. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, said, “We are very excited about ITB China and happy to be part of it right from the first event in 2017. We are confident that the PATA Pavilion at ITB China will be a great opportunity for our members to enhance their business relations with China.”

Jane Sun, Co-president and COO, Ctrip, will be the keynote speaker at the official opening of the first ITB China. Sun said, “We are very excited about ITB China and happy to be part of it right from the first event in 2017. We are confident that the ITB China will be a great opportunity for Ctrip to enhance its business relations with global destinations and travel service suppliers.” Ctrip is a leading provider of travel services including accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and corporate travel management in China. The company last attracted global attention in 2015 when it acquired a stake of Qunar, its rival company, and thereby strengthened its leadership in China’s online travel space.

One of the early committed exhibitors is Visit Finland. “China is one of our main focus markets and we are looking forward to ITB China to meet old and new partners to sell Finland together with us. We have great expectations of this new business event,” says Heli Mende, Head of Global Sales Promotion, Visit Finland.

“ITB China is designed as the B2B platform interconnecting the Chinese with the international travel industries. Fully leveraging widely used channels in China such as WeChat therefore is one of our core activities just as it is for destinations, travel service and travel technology provider offering their products and services at ITB China,” says David Axiotis, General Manager, ITB China.