The Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) 2016 was successfully held for the 13th time at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center. The three-day tourism exposition saw almost 1,000 exhibitors from more than 81 countries and regions, as well as 24 provinces and autonomous regions, spanning a floor space of 22,000 square metres.
In total, 475 local and international hosted buyers and 5,819 local and international trade visitors attended the exhibition. The exhibition also saw 120,000 public visitors flock to the booths to source for the best travel packages. The hosted buyers held over 5,000 Buyers-Sellers Meeting sessions. The 5,819 trade visitors negotiated business transactions worth 5.9 billion yuan, a 5.4% increase from the previous year. 19 travel agencies received reservations from about 33 thousand customers, grossing 93 million yuan in sales revenue, a 12% year-on-year increase.

Beijing International Tourism Expo 2016 began with a Networking Reception, which representatives from various embassies and tourism ministries, including Cote d’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Dominica Republic, Indonesia, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Turkey attended, at Swissotel Beijing Hong Kong Macau Centre. In his address to the audience, Mr Song Yu shared that Beijing hosted 273 million inbound tourists in 2015, grossing total revenue of more than 467 billion yuan. Mr Yu also teased the audience on what they could expect from Beijing – with Beijing winning the rights to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics, Beijing will present more exciting and vibrant content to its visitors.

The International Hall was vibrant and bustling with life. Indonesia, the International Gold Sponsor, let their culture showed through their traditional dances Legong Mesatya Dance and Kembang Girang Dance and Czech Republic drew the crowd with their traditional folk band. Korea and Japan hyped up the atmosphere with their K-POP and cosplay dances. Cote d’Ivoire attracted the crowd with a chocolate fondue and their arsenal of alcohol.

Destination Presentation Sessions were also scheduled on the first two days of the exhibition to help international exhibitors promote their destinations to all interested trade visitors. Brand USA and Cote D’Ivoice Tourisme kicked off the Destination Presentation Session taking the first two presentation slots. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, the Country Partner, then took over with their presentation entitled “Wonder of Asia”, which brought the audience visually to Sri Lanka with photographs and descriptions of the various destinations and attractions one must visit while in Sri Lanka.

BITE 2016 concluded on a high, with several awards being handed out to various exhibitors to acknowledge their effort put into the exhibition, and to celebrate yet another year of success for BITE 2016.

Jointly organised by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development, Conference & Exhibition Management Services Pte Ltd, CEMS (Beijing) Conference and Exhibitions Co., Ltd and Beijing Relation Conference & Exhibition Services, BITE 2016 upheld its image as a globalised, vibrant and diversified display of tourism destinations, products and services.
The next instalment of the BITE series will be held in June 2016 at the China National Convention Centre. For more information, please visit www.bitechina.com.cn. For exhibition enquiries, please contact bite-sales@cems.com.sg.
some Impressions: