Polish booth awarded at Beijing expo
The Beijing International Tourism Expo 2018 wrapped up. For three days (15-17 June) the Polish booth arranged by the Beijing-based office of Polish Tourism Organisation (Polska Organizacja Turystyczna - POT) was presenting an offer aimed at Chinese tourists. The proposals showcased by representatives of Warsaw and Kraków acted as the leading highlight. The two Polish capitals, administrative and historical, are the top destinations among Chinese tourists. Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław are further down the list of popular cities covered by itineraries of Poland tours.
A couple of folk dancers wearing traditional Kraków costumes and a pretty mermaid attracted the attention of crowds drawn by the three-day event. Guests were leaving the Polish booth complete with a set of informational materials in Mandarin and the obligatory picture taken against the background of photograms of cities accompanied by the Kraków dancers and the mermaid known from Warsaw’s coat of arms. The exotic representatives of Poland also visited the booths of China’s top travel agencies selling their outbound programmes during the expo. In addition to tourist highlights, Warsaw promoted its profile at WeChat, China’s number one social network.
Recognising the invention shown in arranging the Polish exhibition and conducting related promotional efforts, the organisers of Beijing International Tourism Expo 2018 presented the Most Creative Booth award to Poland. The list of winners also included Thailand Tourism and Okinawa Highland Tourism booths.
The intensive promotional efforts supervised by Polish Tourism Organisation are among the chief factors responsible for the significant recent growth of the number of Chinese tourists travelling to our country. Compared with the year before, the growth rate in 2017 equalled 55% with more than 130,000 Chinese residents visiting Poland.
Beijing International Tourism Expo is focused on the industry and consumers. The number of exhibitors exceeds 2,000 with 500 hosted buyers. Booths take up an area of more than 30,000 m2. Official data estimates that this year’s expo involved 12,000 representatives of the tourism sector and 90,000 visitors and individual clients. According to the event’s organiser, the total value of tourism products sold at BITE amounted to 80 million CNY (approx. 10.5 million Euro).