THE historic water town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province is banking on international trade shows to raise its profile among foreign meeting and incentive planners.
Yao Jie, marketing director, sales department, Wuzhen Tourism Co, told TTGmice e-Weekly that the tourism body had exhibited at several international trade shows in recent years (such as ITB Berlin and IT&CM China), and its participation at AIME 2013 was its second to-date.
Yao said: “We did not get many business leads from AIME 2012, but I’m certain that our presence at the show last year helped place Wuzhen in the minds of buyers. I realised that many AIME buyers this year came to us with an existing knowledge of Wuzhen, which was not the case in 2012.
“Furthermore, at AIME this year, we had several buyers from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia who came by to say that they were impressed by what we offer and were considering taking events to Wuzhen.”
She added: “We get 1,000 domestic meeting and incentive groups on average every year, but international events come nowhere close. It is a shame because Wuzhen has many top quality resorts and unique venues that can do wonders for high-end corporate events.
“We recently had a private dinner event at Zhaoming Academy (an ancient architecture with a library, exhibition hall, courtyards and gardens, etc) for members of the (US-based) Rolls Royce Owners’ Club. Dinner was set-up on a long banquet table, just like what was done in the past.”
Yao believes that much more branding is needed to truly grow the destination’s international MICE business, and said Wuzhen Tourism Co would continue to showcase the destination’s MICE capabilities at international travel shows.
