World Bridge Tourism (WBT), an EU initiative, raised the curtain on the EU-China Year of Tourism 2018 (ECTY), at ITB China in Shanghai on May 9-10th 2017. The project’s specific goals were to enhance understanding of Chinese visitors’ needs when traveling in Europe and incentivising visitation from the People’s Republic of China to the EU.
To advance these priorities, WBT hosted a conference and a B2B workshop between tourism-related Chinese and EU operators, particularly SMEs. Suppliers numbered over 100 and included destinations, operators, DMCs, hotels, attractions, etc., that have a product targeted towards the Chinese market.
Throughout 2018, an unprecedented level of attention will be paid to the growing importance of China as an origin market, and the changing preferences and behaviour patterns of Chinese visitors. WBT was the kick-off program for an important series of events and campaigns designed to increase tourism flows between China and Europe, enhance people-to-people dialogue, and strengthen cooperation between the Chinese and EU authorities in the field of tourism.