Chinese Tourism Research Firms Set to Join Forces

Two leading research and consulting organizations for the Chinese tourism markets have agreed to join forces during the CITM, held in Kunming from Nov. 19 to 22. CITM in Kunming is the major tourism event for tourism trade organized by Chinese government officials. Even in times of economic crisis and growing competition, Chinese inbound, domestic and outbound tourism continues strong growth.

For sustainable development and optimized service quality, which incorporates knowledge about different cultural backgrounds of Chinese and non-Chinese customer groups, the tourism industry needs research, marketing and e-marketing planning, e-commerce, online travel commerce, training and quality assessment. COTRI and Dragon Trail have decided to work closely together to support the tourism industry both inside and outside of China.

The COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, based in Germany and led by Director Wolfgang Georg Arlt, is an independent research institute for analysis, consulting and quality assessment relating to the Chinese Outbound Tourism market.

Dragon Trail, an international tourism and hospitality strategy and technology company based both in China and Canada and led by Chief Technologist George Cao and Chief Strategist Jens Thraenhart, provides advice, research and custom solutions for travel organizations which desire to market their brands to Chinese consumers, leveraging strategies on media and technology development, CRM, online advertisement, among others.

Dragon Trail is the leading digital marketing and social media services provider for travel and tourism in China with a focus on the outbound and domestic markets. Dragon Trail and COTRI are planning various seminars, and custom-made boot-camps for organizations to educate on marketing to Chinese consumers and hosting Chinese tourists –the next one during ITB in Berlin in March 2010.