VIVIAN WU, an experienced online travel business professional from the United States, has been busy meeting her Chinese suppliers and seeking opportunities at the 2019 China International Travel Mart which concluded Sunday in Kunming, Yunnan Province.

Wu has been working in the online hotel business for the China market since 2004 and began to expand her career in the online tour business segment in 2015 for TripAdvisor, the world’s major travel platform.

“In the past 15 years, China’s online travel industry has grown rapidly. The China market has huge potential no matter if it’s from the perspective of local tour operators or the consumer booking behavior,” said Wu, regional manager of TripAdvisor Inc.’s China division.

“I am here to look for potential targeted suppliers and to understand the latest market trends of China’s tourism,” she said.

Wu said she found that traditional offline tour operators start to pay much more attention to online business as well as have a strong desire to cooperate with online travel agencies.

Tourism has become an important engine to power global economic growth with the total number of inbound and outbound tourists in China, reaching 291 million in 2018, up 7.8 percent year on year, according to Luo Shugang, minister of culture and tourism.

“There is certainly a lot of potential in China’s tourism market. It’s an ever-growing market, especially for Australian guests,” said Jacob Iwikua, the journey coordinator from an Australian company called Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours.(Xinhua)