China, July 30, 2008 – The 2008 China Travel Distribution & Technology Summit, in association with PhoCusWright, has sealed a marketing alliance with WIT-Web In Travel. eTurboNews is a media partner for this event.
The 2008 China Travel Distribution & Technology Summit will be held November 20-21 at the InterContinental Pudong Hotel, Shanghai while WIT will be held in Singapore on October 21-22 at Suntec City.
Both events are opening two of the largest trade shows in Asia โ the China event will open the China International Travel Mart (CITM) on November 20-23 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, while WIT will open the inaugural ITB Asia on October 22-24, which last week announced it had sold out all 500 booth spaces.
Both events are also supported by PhoCusWright, the travel industry research authority on how travelers, suppliers and intermediaries connect.
โThe international travel industry now recognizes that China is the future of their business. It is anticipated that by 2015 China will become the largest domestic travel market, the No. 1 travel destination and the No. 4 source market in the world. To understand this market and how local consumers are buying travel is increasingly becoming important for the multinational companies who are looking to invest in China or to do business with Chinese companies,โ said Eva He, marketing director of Traveldaily. โTraveldaily is proud to host Chinaโs leading travel distribution conference by bringing distinguished speakers from both Chinese and international travel companies. By working together with them and our media partners, we are striving to make this conference a great success and create excellent networking opportunities for travel industry professionals.โ
โLast week, China announced it has overtaken the US in terms of Internet users โ 253 million versus the US’ 220 million. The numbers may not be as staggering in other Asia Pacific markets but one thing is certain โ the rapid rate of adoption of the Internet by Asia’s youths and the quantum leaps being made in technological infrastructure in the region are fueling one of the most exciting phases in the Asia Pacific online travel market,โ said Yeoh Siew Hoon, conference producer of WIT.
China Travel Distribution & Technology Summit is organized by Traveldaily, China’s leading online publisher focusing on distribution, marketing and technology trends in the travel and tourism industries.
Its speakers include:
* Markus Keller, Greater China Sales & Distribution Director, Accor
* Fajin Hu, Senior E-Commerce Manager, Air China
* Yang Lei, CEO, BilltoBill
* Sara Janine Thorley, General Manager, British Airways, China
* Billy Shen, COO, Byecity.com
* Ji Sun, CEO, China Air Service
* Ningjun Li, General Manager, IT Dept., China Spring Airlines
* Min Fan, CEO, Ctrip
* Guangfu Cui, CEO, Elong
* Cyrill Ranque, Vice President, Partner Service Group, Asia Pacific, Expedia
* Alex Xu, Chairman and CEO, GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Group
* Tim Gao, President, Hainan Airlines Hotel Group
* Baojian Zhang, Regional Vice President, North Asia, IATA
* Hua Chen, CEO, Kooxoo.com
* Weixiang Feng, CEO, Mangocity
* Sandeep Bahl, General Manager, China, Northwest Airlines, Inc.
* Zhou Xin, Business Development Director, PayPal
* Tommy Tian, China Analyst, PhoCusWright
WIT is in its fourth year, and this year will tackle the theme of transformation in the Asia Pacific online travel industry, honing in on โIdeas. Execution. Action.โ Its speakers include:
โข KP Ho, executive chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings
โข Jim Donnelly, Pursuit Group Charlotte
โข Philip Wolf, CEO, PhoCusWright
โข Timothy Hughes, Commercial Director, Hotelclub.Com/BOOT โ The Business of Online Travel
โข Gordon Locke, Vice President, Airline Marketing and Strategy, Sabre Airline Solutions/Sabre Travel Network
โข Richard Noon, Chief Executive Officer, Webjet
โข Adrian Currie, Chief Executive Officer, Agoda
โข Henrik Kjellberg, President Asia Pacific, Expedia Inc
โข Robbie Cooke, CEO, Wotif
โข Robert Bailey, president & CEO, Abacus International
โข Brad Holman, managing director Asia Pacific, Travelport
โข Azran Osman Rani, CEO, AirAsiaX
โข Kathleen Tan, vice president-marketing, Air Asia
โข Ken Mandel, VP and managing director, Yahoo! Southeast Asia
โข Mike Buckman, president, Asia Pacific Region, BCD Travel
โข Masabumi Mori , CEO, Ikyu Corp, Japan
โข Suguru Tomizuka, president, Recruit Co Ltd, Japan
Registration for both events are open. Early bird rate for the China event will end August 15. Book both events at http://www.traveldaily.cn/tdchina/en/select.asp and www.webintravel.com.
About Traveldaily
Traveldaily is Chinaโs leading online publisher with emphasis on distribution, marketing and technology trends in the travel and tourism industries.
With their China focus, their up-to-minute news and feature stories, combined with the in-depth analysis by leading industry experts, they will keep you up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry.
http://www.traveldaily.cn
About WIT-Web in Travel
WIT, launched in 2005, is Asia’s leading travel distribution, marketing and technology conference. In its fourth year, WIT has gained a reputation for creative, interactive and lively programming. Expect to pick up lots of โIdeas. Execution. Action.โ in hard-hitting interviews, lively debates, thought-provoking panels, insightful case studies and audience voting sessions.
http://www.webintravel.com