By Maggie Rauch, China TravelDaily
SHENZEN – Investment activity in the Chinese travel industry isn’t all going straight to the Web.
Earlier this year, the China National Tourism Administration projected that Chinese travellers would take 50 million outbound trips in 2009, and domestic tourism revenue would grow by eight percent.
One recent entrant to the Chinese market is low-cost Malaysian carrier Air Asia, which has been aggressively going after Chinese business for the last two years.
Kathleen Tan, regional head of commercial for Air Asia, speaking at the China Travel Distribution Summit, said, “When the economy is down, people still need to fly. China is an economic powerhouse and a lot of people want to fly.
“The big airlines told us that our model would not work here,†Tan said. “Because people don’t want to book online, and like to use cash.
“Elsewhere the key thing is the low fare. But of course we won’t change our model because the industry thinks it won’t work in China.â€
Today, Air Asia operates 200 weekly flights to nine Chinese cities.
Tan says the airline has succeeded by listening to what Chinese travellers want, and then promoting that. Getting employee buy-in has also helped.
“When we hired local staff, it was important to get them to buy into our culture and understand the value proposition,†Tan says.
She spoke of her own personal efforts to adapt to Chinese business culture, studying Mandarin and throwing back shots of baijiu at business dinners.
