With China hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics this coming August, as well as the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, this year’s edition of the Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) promises to be a record-breaker.
With an exhibition area of 30,000m2, the Beijing Exhibition Centre will be playing host to approximately 1,000 exhibitors, representing 100 countries, and 30,000 trade professionals and visitors from 19-21 June 2008.
According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the forthcoming Olympics and the increasing influx of both outbound and inbound tourists will convert Beijing into the world’s leading travel destination by 2015 and position China permanently in the top five tourist destinations worldwide. Likewise, the organisation estimates that Chinese outbound travellers are expected to reach 100 million, equal to the number of outbound travellers from all other Asian countries combined, making it the world’s fourth largest outbound travel market.
Based on statistic from China National Tourist Office, 124 million tourists visited the country in 2006 – up 3.87% on figures for the year before – 22 million of which were foreign travellers (excluding those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan).
The main purpose of travel was sightseeing and leisure (51% of the foreign visitors) followed by meetings and business (25%). In 2005, 31.03 million Chinese travelled abroad, up 7.5% on the previous year.
