Two leading research and consulting organizations for the Chinese tourism markets have agreed to join forces during the CITM, held in Kunming from November 19-22, 2009. CITM in Kunming is the major tourism event for tourism trade organized by Chinese government officials provides the ideal venue for the start of our cooperation.

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 its Director Prof. Wolfgang Georg Arlt is the worldwide leading 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.

“Product adaptation, training programmes and Social Media marketing are all necessary parts for successful cross-culture tourism offers. Together COTRI and Dragon Trail will provide the tourism industry both inside and outside China with a strong source for all services needed to develop the fast growing and segmenting Chinese tourism market”, said Prof. Arlt. “Linking together the delivery of service excellence with the ability to engage satisfied consumers via social media marketing, provides an extremely powerful loop to increase share of voice and share of market in China where consumers are very active online and are influenced by peers, added Mr. Thraenhart. “Our combined services can provide a competitive edge to travel brands entering the Chinese market, in addition to working with travel agents and tour operators in China.

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. More information will be available soon.

Jens Thraenhart of Dragon Trail will be participating at the China Travel Distribution Summit in Shenzhen, organized in partnership of TravelDaily and Phocuswright.