ITB China, one of the largest travel trade conferences in the Asia Pacific, formally closed the doors on its sixth edition yesterday, 29th May.
We at Travel Daily Media were honoured to be among the media partners for this milestone event which brought in several thousand participants to Shanghai to take part in detailed discussions regarding the tourism sector and the attendant industries of aviation, travel, hospitality, technological development, and finance.
In this feature, we list a number of observations we had from the floor throughout our coverage of the event which technically began the evening of Monday, 26th May, with a welcome gala honouring Malaysia which was this year's partner destination.
China first and foremost
While it's one of the biggest in the region and features a significant number of global tourism boards, airlines, and hotel management companies, ITB China really plays to local travel agencies and hospitality providers.
One good thing about this is that it enables domestic destinations such as this year's location-in-focus Hubei Province to shine before both local and foreign participants.
Indeed, this China-first approach enabled Hubei, Guangxi, Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Hong Kong to bring their best and brightest offerings to interested tourism and travel professionals through exhibitions, some modicum of retail, cultural performances, and key events such as signings with upcoming trade and development partners.
However, this also meant that there was a definite language barrier when it came to symposia and panel discussions, as up to 90 percent were Mandarin only.
Unfortunately, AI, simultaneous, and delayed translation methods used during these gatherings literally lost a good deal of the context that would have been important to foreign experts and buyers.
Cultural promotion and using culture for promotion
While facts and figures are interesting enough to professionals, nothing beats immersive experiences to draw crowds to a booth, and several tourism boards delivered this in spades.
Many national displays attracted participants with specialities from their home countries: spiced coffee and dates from Saudi Arabia, for example, as well as the aromatic brews of Brazil, tea and traditional sweets from several Chinese provinces, mint tea from the Moroccans, and both coffee and traditional bread from the Ethiopians.
There were also displays of traditional craftwork as seen above in the Arabic script calligraphy attraction of the Morocco booth, as well as the vibrant woolwork presented by the Peruvians.
Traditional songs and dances also brought crowds to different parts of the hall, from the ululating chants of Arabic nations and the graceful dances of China, to Malaysian ballads sung live at the Tourism Malaysia booth and people joining dance sessions at the booths of several African nations.
Who was at ITB China 2025?
Middle Eastern and African destinations made up the majority of exhibitors, though European nations remained well-represented with Greece, Georgia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal taking up nearly a third of the exhibition hall.
Interestingly, with the exception of Malaysia which is the partner destination for this year, there was a notable absence of Southeast Asian participants.
This was particularly intriguing, given how ASEAN countries like the Philippines and Indonesia were there in full force at the Macao International Travel Expo back in April of this year, and also given how places like Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos are among the countries projected to receive a sizeable number of Chinese travellers by the end of this year.
As mentioned, Brazil and Peru brought some significant South American flavour to ITB China 2025, and their national displays brought in a good number of potential buyers who wished to offer their clients a taste of the far side of the world.
But given this development, North American destinations were also sorely underrepresented, with only the Los Angeles Tourism Board exhibiting and their space was small compared to others.
Traditional travel agencies still did a roaring trade
Considering the bright, bold, even flashy displays of dominant online travel platforms such as this year's primary sponsor Trip.com, we noticed that collective booths shared by traditional travel agencies were doing very well for themselves throughout the three days of the event.
While most did not offer souvenirs or brilliant gimmicks, travel buyers were actively moving from their spaces to those of the hotel industry and aviation sector, making contacts and cutting deals whenever possible.
This calls to mind one of our previous features which cited the enduring relevance of physical travel agencies that offer trips planned through human interaction despite the convenience offered by OTAs.
