This document announces a travel distribution and sales conference in Beijing from September 24-25, 2008. It aims to help attendees sell more travel to lucrative Chinese markets by enhancing their sales and marketing efforts with a targeted online strategy. Topics will include optimizing agency-supplier partnerships, benefiting from emerging payment solutions, and maximizing profits by selling the right products through the cheapest distribution channels. Hearing expert perspectives will help maximize Chinese distribution potential. The conference provides a significant locally-focused forum and networking opportunities to connect international experience with local understanding.
EyeforTravel - Travel Distribution Summit China 2008
1. mixing local understanding with global experience
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$200
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before Aug 8th
2008
Travel Distribution & Sales China 2008
2008 24 -25 24th - 25th September, Renaissance Beijing Hotel
Sell more travel to lucrative
new Chinese markets
• ProfiT from ChiNa’S boomiNG
eCoNomy and capture new travel Top speakers include:
customers from the growing Chinese
middle class
• eNhaNCe your SaleS aND
markeTiNG efforTS with a
Tang Lan, Guangfu Cui,
targeted and measurable online strategy VP of Marketing, Ctrip CEO, eLong
• DiSCover The beST
DiSTribuTioN ChaNNelS across
fragmented China - Optimize your
Agency-Supplier partnerships Sandeep Bahl,
William Dong, President & General Manager China,
• beNefiT from The PraCTiCal CEO, Best Western China Northwest Airlines
PaymeNT and eCommerce solutions
that are fuelling online spending in China
• maXimiSe your ProfiTS by
Meng Yu,
selling the right product at the right Xue Qiang, Vice President Executive Vice President,
price through your cheapest distribution eCommerce, Travelsky JinJiang Inns Co.
freSh New
channels aGeNDa!
Jimmy Jia, Vertical Head Harry Tan, President &
of Travel, Google China CEO, Days Inn China
maximise your Chinese distribution potential
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Hear from these top industry experts
Tang Lan, VP of Marketing, Ctrip
Guangfu Cui, CEO, eLong
William Dong, President & CEO, Best Western China
Chen Chao Zhuang, Co-Founder & CTO, Qunar.com
Roy Graff, Director of Business Development,
Sportsworld
Harry Tan, President & CEO, Days Inn China
Zhiping Li, Vice President,
Hanting Inns & Hotels Group
Tim Ramage, General Manager, Greater China,
Carlson Wagonlit China
Yang Lei, CEO, BilltoBill
Peter Gordon, VP, Commercial Payment Solutions,
MasterCard Worldwide
George Cao, President, Go10000
Zinan Liu, Director of Sales & Account Management,
HRG
Sandeep Bahl, General Manager China,
China’s most trust
Northwest Airlines
Aliana Ho, SVP Destination Marketing, China will eventually be the largest nation of travel
Venetian Macau purchasers on the planet. Spending from both
domestic and outbound travel markets has doubled
Xue Qiang, Vice President eCommerce, Travelsky since 2002, totalling a staggering RMB 346.9 billion
Paul Yin, VP & Marketing Director, in 2007.
China Odyssey Tours This impressive growth can be partly accredited to the
Christina Siaw, CEO, Macau.com massive rise in internet users - most recently estimated
at 221 million, higher than even the US - coupled with
Jimmy Jia, Vertical Head of Travel, Google China the emergence of the expanding Chinese middle class,
Frank Zheng, Head of Purchasing, Caissa with greater access to disposable income and
spending power.
William Bao Bean, Partner,
Softbank China & India Holdings What remains most interesting is that these record
breaking statistics have been achieved with no more
Michael Chen, Vice President - Marketing, than 16% of China’s entire population on the internet.
Jinling Hotels & Resorts Unsurprisingly the Chinese travel industry is at its
strongest ever, and is taking huge developmental
Douglas Barber, COO, Guoman Hotels
strides by global standards.
Ernst Hemmer, Regional Director APAC,
The Chinese Travel Distribution and Sales conference
OctopusTravel
is a significant, locally focused forum, that will equip
Feng Zou, Chairman, ChinaComfort attendees with the distribution and sales skills
necessary to succeed in this very unique market place.
Wilfred Fan, Vice President, Agoda
There is no other market so fragmented and technically
Meng Yu, Executive Vice President, JinJiang Inns Co. difficult to penetrate as China, so our agenda is tailored
The travel industry’s most important post-olympic
6. Targeted distribution and sales strategies
Conference agenda Day 1 – wednesday 24th September
keYNOTe 4. Managing revenue and sales in the face of hotel
1. The Ctrip experience room over-supply
Ctrip have long been the pioneer and leader of China’s online travel market Olympic fever has brought an unprecedented level of hotel investment into China.
place. As the Chinese market matures, Ctrip have not only managed to Remarkably some of this competition is from chains that until now have never
stay ahead of the competition, but have experienced massive growth invested outside their own national base, adding to the heightening oversupply of
in the process. rooms. Shanghai felt the affect of this in 2007, experiencing a 3% drop in
average occupancy.
Let our Ctrip expert share with you what he considers to be the key
decisions in their journey to online success. Hear what led to their 66% As the post Olympic boom eventually subsides, the onus will fall on both the
profit growth in 2007, and how they see the Chinese marketplace evolving Revenue Management and Sales teams to solve the problem of ‘how to manage
over the coming 10 years. revenue in an oversupplied market’. Will Total Revenue Management become
mainstream, in favour of classic management of room revenues?
Tang Lan, VP of Marketing, Ctrip
Zhiping Li, Vice President, Hanting Inns & Hotels Group
2. Profiting from the Chinese boom period Wilfred Fan, Vice President, Agoda
China is the world’s most exciting travel market place. The business and
growth potential is incomparable to any other nation in history. The number 5. Corporate travel – Travel Management Companies
of Chinese internet users has overtaken the US, and is expected to reach as a distribution channel?
280 million users by the end of 2008 at a staggering 200,000 new internet
Travel Management Companies are steadily emerging as a viable means by which
subscribers per day.
to distribute travel products across China. Chinese corporate clients are slowly
With the growth of the Chinese middle class, the new emphasis on a realising the simplicity of travel bookings using TMC’s, however most local
‘Holiday Economy’, and the ambitious plans of bringing 82% of China’s companies still prefer to pay a transaction fee instead of a TMC
population to within 90 minutes of an airport, Chinese travel is a mouth percentage commission.
watering land of opportunity.
• discover the optimised corporate programs TMC’s can provide, and ensure
As the internet savvy youth of today become the cash rich young adults of your company is positioned to capitalise on new corporate travel markets.
tomorrow, the real financial benefits of an online presence will be realised.
• What new opportunities and markets can the emergence of TMC’s provide?
• Sink or swim – what types of companies will prosper in a more liberal
• Evaluate how cost effective this distribution channel is
Chinese business environment?
• What added value can TMC’s provide local suppliers by handling their
• What is the typical profile of a new Chinese internet user?
corporate travel bookings?
How do they purchase travel products online?
Tim Ramage, General Manager, Greater China,
• What lessons can be learnt from successful Western companies
Carlson Wagonlit China
following an internet penetration boom?
Douglas Barber, COO, Guoman Hotels
• Forecasting the future – how long will the current boom last, and what
can we expect the Chinese travel market to look like by 2010 and beyond? COffEE BREAk
William Dong, President & CEO, Best Western China
Chen Chao Zhuang, Co-Founder & CTO, Qunar.com
6. The growing opportunity of eCommerce with
Feng Zou, Chairman, ChinaComfort secure online payment portals
Sandeep Bahl, General Manager China, Northwest Airlines Online payment solutions have long been a restriction to the growth of cost
effective online travel distribution. Without the necessary securities in place
COffEE BREAk
your business runs the risk of harming its own reputation, and the confidence
of your customers.
3. Capitalising on the Olympic Buzz
New solutions to this problem are becoming more readily available, and the
What can history teach the travel industry in the aftermath of this change in consumer behaviour is quickly creating a greater need for these
Olympic year? solutions to be implemented.
Since the Olympics have cast global eyes on China, the window of • Many major online players find that customers use their site as a research tool
opportunity to cash-in on the inbound visitor boom is now! Consider primarily, and still prefer manual offline payments. Will automated payments be
these past host country statistics: led by an industry push or a radical change in consumer behaviour?
• Pre-Olympic Barcelona saw only 1.7 million tourists annually, • International credit card payments - What kind of new sales opportunities will
compared with more than 5.5 million today be missed if your site cannot accommodate international credit card payments?
• Australia hosted an extra 1.6 million visitors in the year following the • How are fragmented hotel payment portals hindering their ability to grow
Sydney Olympic games, accounting for over $6 billion in new spending. online booking numbers?
• Greece’s visitor arrivals rose by 13 percent after the 2004 games, and • Which new start-ups have experienced success in attracting consumers to
allowed the city to re-brand itself as an activity hot spot. book using online portals? What have they done differently from the
Financial spin-offs for the travel industry from the Beijing Olympics will established players?
be immense. Ensure you are positioned to exploit this, and that the type • Agents feeling the squeeze – how must agents adapt to remain relevant in the
of products and services you offer appeal to the diverse and lucrative new online environment, as consumers slowly move toward online payments?
markets set to flood China. Hear about the key distribution channels – both
on and offline – that will optimise your ability to generate continued post- Yang Lei, CEO, BilltoBill
Olympic revenue. Peter Gordon, VP, Commercial Payment Solutions,
Roy Graff, Director of Business Development, Sportsworld MasterCard Worldwide
Harry Tan, President & CEO, Days Inn Ernst Hemmer, Regional Director APAC, OctopusTravel
lunCH BREAk EnD Of DAy nETWORking RECEpTiOn
The travel industry’s most important post-olympic
7. for evolving Chinese travel markets
Conference agenda Day 2 – Thursday 25th September
keYNOTe 4. Optimising your Agency-Supplier
1. The eLong story – The 4G’s strategy to revitalize distribution relationships
eLong distribution and sales partnerships between agencies and suppliers have
Recently, eLong (52% owned by global giant Expedia) has seen its brand integrity provided the basis for Chinese travel business. Times are changing, and
and growth momentum being regained. the impacts of this will be felt by agencies nationwide as online bookings
are expected to swell from 5% to 12% of total bookings by 2012. History
Hear how a dramatic shift towards customer satisfaction, the launch of a fresh new suggests that the relevance of agencies suffers greatly when online
user friendly website, the integration of Expedia global resource and the promotion bookings become mainstream, hear what this will mean for the
of corporate responsibility, has reversed the fortunes of eLong. Chinese industry.
Guangfu Cui, CEO, eLong • “Offline sales through agencies works fine for me.
Why would I want to change?”
2. Developing new & profitable distribution channels
• What new facilities and non-traditional travel products should
As a nation China’s distribution landscape is considerably more fragmented than agencies offer to maintain their relevance to the consumer?
other nations, even by Asian standards. Identifying how lucrative new distribution
• What will the possibility of increased GdS competition mean
channels are key to the prolonged growth and success of all travel businesses in
for traditional agencies?
this time of heightened demand for Chinese travel.
• To avoid damaging agency to supplier relationships, many suppliers
• Hotel sales have dominated the share of Online Travel Agency revenues, which
are restricting their online marketing activities. Is there a way for
grew from RMB 142 million in 2002 to RMB 4 billion last year. What promising
agencies and suppliers to leverage off one another in an online world?
prospects does the emergence of OTAs now hold for airlines and package tours?
• discover the cost benefits of driving consumers directly to your
• Identify your distribution channels that are underperforming
online booking engine. What content must your website contain for
• Ensure the level of profiting from supplier and agent relationships is reciprocal consumers to make a purchase?
• What new technologies are impacting the way that agencies and suppliers have Xue Qiang, Vice President eCommerce, Travelsky
classically interacted?
Paul Yin, VP & Marketing Director, China Odyssey Tours
agenda in english
• The corporate sector – how can you establish firm ties with this hugely lucrative
Christina Siaw, CEO, Macau.com
market segment?
• How must the traditional agency role evolve to accommodate the continued shift ClOSE Of COnfEREnCE
towards online bookings?
• The Chinese market is maturing – what new distribution channels can we expect
to see as a result?
PluS - attend this exclusive
George Cao, President, Go10000 Pre-conference workshop
Zinan Liu, Director of Sales & Account Management, HRG China’s booming tourism sector
and the opportunities that exist for
Meng Yu, Executive Vice President, JinJiang Inns Co. Western tourism organisations to
benefit. Some of the topics to be
COffEE BREAk
touched on:
3. Integrated sales and marketing strategies • Updates on recent changes in
China’s tourism sector –
Online sales and marketing is the most cost effective and targeted means to selling market movements, trends, policies.
travel products. However in China a large portion of a marketing spend still needs
to be offline to be comprehensive. Aligning offline strategies with your online is • Who are the major players and what are the market
essential for brand consistency and the success of an all encompassing access routes?
marketing strategy. • How are the changes in government regulations going to
• Achieving the best possible marketing mix – which channels will target affect market access?
your customers most profitably? • What is happening in China in the field of ticketing, GDS,
• Chinese consumers are the world’s biggest users of social networks. online travel and FIT?
What new marketing possibilities does this create? • What products would be suitable for independent
• Supplier website bookings grew by RMB 442 million in 2002, to 18.2 billion in Chinese travellers?
2007. Hear what types of services (and assurances) you must provide Chinese • Where are there opportunities for Western expertise and
customers with, to cash-in on this lucrative channel innovation?
• As with the US 10 years ago, domestic air travel is fuelling online adoption. • How to stay competitive in light of the increased market
What flow on affects can we expect to start seeing for China’s other travel sectors? competition for Chinese tourists?
• Search engine optimisation, email marketing, rich media, Web 2.0…. What forms • What is unique about Chinese visitors in their behaviour
of marketing will entice the unique Chinese customer to purchase travel online? and preferences?
• Hear the benefits of operating centralized marketing and distribution teams • What is the source of complaints from Chinese about
Aliana Ho, SVP Destination Marketing, Venetian Macau visiting Western destinations?
Jimmy Jia, Vertical Head of Travel, Google China • How can the present pressure on prices be solved to
ensure Chinese receive quality service and products
Frank Zheng, Head of Purchasing, Caissa while abroad?
Michael Chen, Vice President - Marketing, Jinling Hotels & Resorts • How to impress upon your Chinese customers the
quality of your service
lunCH BREAk
forum. Call +44 (0)20 7375 7536 now to register
