May 15th to 17th last week, the Polish National Tourist Office had pleasure to participate once again in ITB in Shanghai. It was already the 3rd edition of the event and the number of attendees reached 17 000, including more than 800 exhibitors from 84 countries.  The fairs attracted more than 850 buyers from different regions of China, from which 40% were representatives of 2^nd and 3^rd tier cities, as organizers report.

Our booth was joined by 3 travel companies from Poland, which participated as well in previous travel fairs in China: New World, Funclub and Tarifa. The polish companies were happy to meet new possible business partners, present their offer to wider public and strengthen existing business relations. They noted that comparing to other fairs there wasn’t that many visitors to the booth but the quality of undergone talks was much higher.  

During the ITB fair numerous discussion panels, conferences and presentations took place. One of them was the ceremony of announcing annual CTW awards granted by COTRI – China Outbound Travel Research Institute, in cooperation with Ctrip - biggest Online Travel Agency in China. COTRI is the most prestigious research institute examining travel trends in China, supporting foreign tourism boards in their activities and giving guidance to international tourism industry on how to offer best quality products to Chinese travelers. Every year it awards companies and organizations from travel industry in 5 categories:

• Marketing
• Innovation
• Service Quality
• Internet/Media
• Overall Performance

This year we were honored to be included among the winners for the first time. Our Office received Bronze prize in Media category for our efforts in promoting Poland in China and supporting filming of “Fearless 20” reality show in Poland. The show took the girls band Rocket Girls first across the Sahara Desert, and then into the snowy forest of Poland’s Tatra Mountain, to test their teamwork in the wilderness of nature. It was produced by Tencent Video – one of the main video streaming platform in China, and directed by renowned director of phenomenal reality show “Where Are We Going, Dad?” - Xie Dikui. The filming crew team included 140 people, making it the biggest Chinese outdoor expedition reality show taking place in Europe, and the first one in Poland.

“We are very grateful to COTRI and Ctrip for this distinction. This is one of the most prestigious travel awards granted to companies catering to Chinese tourists and it’s a great honor to be listed among so many creative and efficient organizations. This type of event gives us a chance to learn from each other, exchange experience in new activities taken on Chinese market and present some of our best practices. We are hoping that it will further promote Poland as a potential partner for great marketing campaigns, which will result as well in future CTW awards.” - commented Zuzanna Gutkowska, acting director of Polish National Tourism Office in Beijing.