TAAI Convention a major event in Sino-Indian tourism exchange, CNTO

With the bilateral tourism just over a million that include 819,000 as China’s share and 247,000 as India’s, the two-way tourism pales in comparison to what it could be. Tian Xin, Director of CNTO Office in India believes that the informal Jinping-Modi meet in April in Wuhan earlier this year will help deepen mutual trust and open new chapter in bilateral relations and events like the TAAI Convention are steps in the right direction.

Q How do you look at Indo-China bilateral tourism ties at the moment?
A: With the rapid rise of outbound tourism both in China and India, the bilateral tourism exchanges between the two countries have also shown a closer trend. Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 27-28 in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province. The two-day meeting was of historic significance to maintain strategic common interest and deepen mutual trust, opened a new chapter in bilateral relations, which shows the outside world the two neighbours are determined to strengthen their win-win partnership. The summit will have a huge impact on the tourism exchanges between the two countries in the future.

Q: What do you think is the source market potential of India for China?
A: CNTO takes India as a very important potential tourism source market. With the rapid rise of outbound tourism in India in recent years, CNTO is going to focus on the promotion of China’s tourism routine and resources to the tour operators and public in India in using of various ways.

Q: Kindly highlight key tourism source-market advantages of India for China tourism?
A: Both China and India are big countries with large populations. India’s economy has grown rapidly in recent years, and the outbound tourism also. The advantages of India’s tourismsource-market for China are not only economic but also conducive to enhancing mutual understanding and cultural exchanges between peoples in our two countries.

Q: How do you look at the significance of B2B destination marketing strategies in order to develop a source market? What are CNTO India office strategies on this front?
A: At present, the tourism between China and India is mainly in the form of group tours due to the language and diet reason. And B2B marketing is one of the most important ways to promote tourism destination. CNTO is always providing various B2B platforms for the Indian travel agencies. We invite over 70 travel agencies from India to join in tourism festivals and fairs in all over China, and over 200 to join in promotion seminars which are held in India by many provinces of China, providing B2B exchange opportunities to travel agencies from two countries.

Q: Kunming China is hosting 65th TAAI Convention later this month? How does CNTO view the strategic importance of hosting such an event for the destination?
A: About 500 Indian travel agencies and representatives from tourism industry and about 40 Indian media leaders are going to Kunming for the annual convention, which will last for 4 days. The holding of the annual convention will play a positive role in promoting the host city, as well as promoting the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in the tourism, economy, trade, aviation and hotel.

Q: What are CNTO’s expectations from the forthcoming TAAI Convention?
A: TAAI is one of the most important tourism organizations in India. It has a large number of members, covering all aspects of inbound tourism, outbound tourism, domestic tourism, hotels, air tickets, etc., and plays an important role in Indian tourism industry.

The TAAI Annual Convention which is going to be held in China, has received strong support and assistance from the Chinese Embassy in India and the People’s Government of Yunnan Province of China. It is a major event in Sino-Indian tourism exchanges.

Hope that through the annual convention in China, enable the friends of the Indian tourism industry to have more acquaintance and understanding of China’s tourism policies, resources, product routes, reception conditions and facilities. I hope that the delegates from TAAI can interact with the China tourism industry, learn from each other, exchange experiences, and conduct business cooperation extensively to jointly develop more and better tourism products to meet the needs of Indian tourists, organize more Indian tourists to travel to China, and attract more Chinese tourists to visit India, promote tourism exchanges and cooperation between China and India.

Make more and greater contributions to the tourism industry and the economic development of the two countries. I wish the TAAI Annual Convention to be held in Kunming a complete success!

Q: Kindly share details on the latest arrival figures for the current year, expected number by the year end, current growth, if any, and previous two years (2016 and 2017) arrival and growth numbers?
A: The numbers are as below: