China is no longer sleeping : status quo of China’s meeting industry

In order to have a better understanding about the actual Chinese environment, we attended to a conference held by Daniel Tschudy, consultant and journalist.

The aim was to provide in depth look at Chinese status quo in tourism and the meetings industry. After the successful handling of the Olympics in 2008 held in Beijing, Shanghai received in 2010 the Universal Exhibition. China is ready to receive more tourism and thus more meetings and incentives.

The 5 main ideas selected are:

        As an emerging country, in order to develop their economy environment, to do business is their first priority. Everything in China is about huge dimensions and considering this aspect, they are only thinking about the present and not about the past or even the future. Mr Tschudy explained that for these reasons planning long-term objectives is difficult.

   The speaker states that quantity create quality however according to our point of view, this statement doesn’t have accurate example. In order to prove our disagreement, following an example illustrating it : Fordism strategy despite the quantity of items product.

   “The Imperial thinking” has been guiding the Chinese life for a long time. As a result the Chinese are not used to take initiatives and to make decisions. However, understanding this weakness, they are willing to learn for others. This “learning lesson” is called: “happy wheeling and dealing”.

    With many infrastructures, Beijing and Shanghai are the 2 major destinations for the business tourism. However, accordingly to Mr Tschudy, this is not enough for being considered as a potential global destination. Customer services and communication problems are the actual issues that could have a negative influence on the perceived quality. It has to be resolved with, as an example, an efficient training for staff members (in English communication).

   Internal interest first in opposition to stereotypes: people all over the world are recognizing the development of China. The first step for becoming a global marketshare is to create a global strategy within taking consideration the global interest. In China according to Mr Tschudy, things are different. The Chinese strategy has been developed for the own country interest. In other words, the main objective is to please their communities and not the world.

The big question is: is China ready for the world or is the world ready for China ?

 Doris, Marie & Tiphaine.