TRADE MISSION NOTES:

Tourism Announcements for the Governor's Mission

Image of Chinese dragon. Alexander Glos, CEO, i2i Group

09/20/10

Washington state Tourism, Seattle's CVB and the Port of Seattle led a group of tourism representatives, destinations, hotels and tour operators to Beijing and Shanghai in conjunction with the Governors mission. The highlight of our trip was two trade and media events in Beijing and Shanghai, during which we met with over 200 Chinese travel buyers, tour operators and travel agents who are doing business and interested in expanding travel business to Washington state. This year, Washington state will received about 35,000 Chinese tourists, up from just a few thousand only three years ago. China is the fastest growing source of global tourism and it is expected that by 2012, nearly 100,000 Chinese tourists will visit Washington state. The Governor spoke at both events and was the keynoter attracting the highly qualified buyer and media audience. Additionally, we visit several travel companies, including CYTS in Beijing, China's largest travel agent and tour operator, as well as Sohu, one of the largest Chinese online web sites. In Shanghai we were invited to tour Ctrip.com, the largest online travel ticket agent in China.

Tom Norwalk, Seattle's CVB President and CEO, commented, "China is the greatest growth opportunity for tourism development to Washington state and the state offers excellent services and attractions to draw high spending Chinese tourists to our hotels, cruise lines, shopping, exhibitions and conferences."