COTRI China Tourist Welcome Training to be Held in Manchester Following the Establishment of First Direct Flights to China

The Manchester Evening News has reported on COTRI’s forthcoming China Tourist Welcome Training Programmes that will be held in the northern English city on July 12^th and September 14^th, 2016. The training sessions will be delivered via official COTRI Country Partner Capela Training and tourism organisations from across the Greater Manchester as the region looks to capitalise on the new direct flights between Manchester and Beijing, operated by Hainan Airlines.

The new flight route, which will operate four times per week, is expected to attract 20,000 tourists and business travellers annually and will bring an additional GBP 250 million (USD 368.7 million) to the British economy in the coming decade.

Aiming to make Manchester the most China-friendly city in the UK, Marketing Manchester’s director of tourism Nick Brooks-Sykes emphasised that:  “The new direct flight from China represents an amazing opportunity for us that will transform Manchester into China’s gateway to the north of the UK”, adding that “China is a rich and complex country and this training will give tourism organisations an insight in how to appeal to tourists and business travellers.”

Brooks-Sykes also cited Greater Manchester’s universities, culture, shopping and even its world class football teams as particular attractions for Chinese tourists. Notably, English Premier League giants Manchester City, in whom Chinese consortium China Media Captial (CMC) purchased a 13% stake in last year, won the Gold Award in the Overall Performance category at the Chinese Tourist Welcome Awards (CTW Awards) held at Beijing’s China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM) exhibition in April 2016. The club was famously visited by Chinese President, and reported Manchester United fan, Xi Jinping during his October 2015 state visit to the UK, providing a boost to Manchester City’s profile in China shortly before CMC’s USD 400 million investment was announced.

In light of the cancellation of the planned Beijing Capital Airlines-operated summer charter flights between Birmingham and Shanghai, Hainan Airlines’ new connection with Manchester should provide a Chinese tourism boost to the Greater Manchester region. Since January this year, Chinese tourists to Britain have been able to benefit from two-year multiple-entry UK visas, which will it is hoped will attract more repeat visitors to the country. Furthermore, following a 2015 bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and Belgium, Chinese visitors to Europe are now able to apply for both UK and Schengen visas simultaneously online, thereby removing a number of bureaucratic obstacles that had been seen as a roadblock for attracting Chinese inbound tourists to the UK.

COTRI’s China Tourist Welcome Training Programme, delivered in collaboration with Capela Training, will be held in Manchester on Tuesday July 12^th and Wednesday September 14, 2016. For further information, please visit the Capela Training and COTRI websites.

COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute provides expert insights into the worldwide developments of China’s outbound tourism market. As Chinese outbound tourists are travelling to a large range of destinations, our publications cover a number of different regions. Important Chinese visitor activities are analysed, and detailed insights are presented.

With COTRI’s insights you can create a successful business strategy with in-depth market insights, comprehensive qualitative analyses, and future prospects. The recently published Spring 2016 Edition of the COTRI Market Report features in-depth analysis of the developing trends in Chinese outbound tourism, supported by a wealth of qualitative and quantitative statistical research.

Source: Manchester Evening News

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