VisitBritain’s Northern England Campaign wins Gold Award at the Beijing Chinese Tourist Welcome Award 2016 Ceremony

VisitBritain took home a gold award in the Service Quality category at the Chinese Tourist Welcome Award 2016 ceremony in Beijing on April 13^th, 2016. The award recognised VisitBritain’s successful China Welcome Training Programme that was held in collaboration with the Northern Tourism Growth Fund and Visit England across Northern England between October 2015 and March 2016.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting the UK continues to rise year-on-year. According to VisitBritain, the first three quarters of 2015 saw 214,000 arrivals in the country, representing a 37% increase from the figure of 157,000 in 2014.

The tourist board’s award-winning training programme saw the participation of over 260 tourism industry professionals from 70 organisations, including a wide range of local castles and other popular heritage sites, as well as regional tour operators and destination management organisations. The programme’s goal was to provide tourist industry players with the practical expertise required to make their products more ‘China-ready’. Accordingly, 90% of participants expressed intention to utilise the knowledge gained from the programme to make appropriate modifications to their services. This proactive approach to the Chinese outbound tourist market can be seen as an additional support to VisitBritain’s plan of making UK the most welcoming destination in Europe for Chinese visitors.

The Chinese Tourist Welcome Award has been organised by COTRI – China Outbound Tourism Research Institute since 2004. More than 100 tourism service providers, destination management organisations, national tourism organisations, retailers, marketing and communication companies and others involved in the Chinese outbound tourism source market have been awarded with the CTW Award. It is recognized inside and outside China as the most important quality sign for the international Chinese outbound market, with wide coverage in print and electronic media.

In acknowledgement of their highly commendable services tailored to Chinese visitors, other industry players honoured with a gold Chinese Welcome Award in 2016 included: Wonderful Indonesia and the Georgian National Tourism Administration (Marketing), Premier league football club Manchester City FC (Overall Performance), Chinese digital marketing agency Dragon Trail (Internet/Media) and New Zealand’s Dart River travel operator (Product Innovation).

Source: ChinaDaily, Cumbria Cruck

Photo: COTRI