From May 7th to May 11th, 2017, Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission joins hands with American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), one of the world’s largest and most influential travel trade associations, to promote and market Yunnan tourism in the U.S. 

The first stop of the promotion was in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, where a high-level delegation of officials from Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission attended Southwest ASTA 2017 Tradeshow held by ASTA on May 8th to promote Yunnan tourism to the American market.

Over 100 American travel agents attended the event. As the only invited Asian destination to the 4-hour tradeshow, Yunnan set up a booth to demonstrate its high-quality tourism resources, and to market its diverse tourism products. During the tradeshow, Mr. Chen Zhenlong, Deputy Director General of Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, delivered a speech first, expressing his vision towards Sino-US bilateral tourism, “Yunnan hopes to join hands with American travel agents to enhance tourism cooperation and better promote the Sino-US tourism industry.” He also invited American travel agents to participate in the 2017 China International Travel Mart (CITM 2017) to be held in Kunming, Yunnan this October. After that, Mrs. Fang Limin, Vice Director of Marketing Division of Yunnan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, made a presentation under the topic of “Colorful Yunnan, China - Travelers’ Paradise”, and introduced the diverse tourism resources of Yunnan to the guests present.

During the Prize-winning Quiz session, two guests won the prizes offered by Yunnan tourism enterprises including a Shangri-la Tour for two persons and a Kunming/Dali/Lijiang Classical Tour for two persons. Both winners showed great interest in visiting Yunnan. During the tradeshow, the Yunnan delegation also talked with the travel agents present at the event concerning tourism products marketing, tourist route development and future cooperation.

On May 10th, the Yunnan delegation had a symposium in Washington with Mark Meader, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Industry Affairs and Education of ASTA. During the symposium, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and officially established a cooperative relationship on issues of tourism marketing, tourism education and tourism investment, which marked a brand new stage of the cooperation between the two sides. 

The Yunnan promotion trip concluded successfully. Yunnan not only had in-depth and face –to-face communication with many oversea travel agents and obtained first-hand information about the US market, but also strengthened the cooperation with American tourism enterprises, and expanded the opportunities for future cooperation and further communication.