WHILE Polish Tourist Organisation (POT) has already made inroads into mainland China since 2003, it will now pump in more budget and resources in its destination marketing efforts from this year onwards.

Spearheading the Polish NTO’s ramped-up efforts is a tourist campaign, Move Your Imagination, rolled out in selected Asian markets just earlier this month.

“We have been promoting Poland with Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia at CITM in the past, but this year marks the first time we are launching an independent campaign in China,” said Barbara Tutak, POT’s deputy director of planning and marketing department.

“We have a fund of 12.5 million euros (US$17.2 million) from the EU, of which 85 per cent will be spent on mainland China while the rest will be on Japan and India,” she said. “Mainland China is the most important market for us in Asia.”

As the central European country has been successful in attracting well-heeled Chinese travellers between 40 and 55, according to Tutak, POT is also keen to woo a younger segment with a campaign imagery that centres on a young couple – a Polish man and a Chinese woman – in various fairy-tale-like places, suggesting opportunities of adventure and romance in Poland’s wealth of cultural and natural attractions.

To raise awareness of Poland as an outbound destination for the Chinese, the NTO will place advertisements across 30 bus stops in Kunming, travel magazines and leading Chinese newspapers such as Shanghai Daily, plus commercials on major TV stations from January 2014.

Earlier this year, POT invited 12 Chinese travel specialists to take part in the 1^st Regional Forum Poland-China in Gdańsk and has organised seven fam trips with LOT Polish Airlines since April, with another seven such trips in the pipeline for 1H2014, Tutak shared.

The organisation already has a Shanghai-based marketing representative, but it is also looking to establish an office in either Beijing or Shanghai by 2015.

Poland welcomed 35,000 mainland visitors in 2012 and forecasts 69,000 by 2015.

RISING air connections from China will help to further drive the Chinese market for Chiang Mai, particularly the FIT segment.

Air China will introduce a thrice-weekly Beijing-Chiang Mai service from November 7 using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. A month later, China Southern Airlines will commence daily flights between Guangzhou and Chiang Mai from December 1 on Airbus A319 aircraft. Juneyao Airlines already started four-times-weekly Shanghai (Pudong)-Chiang Mai services in April this year.

To capitalise on the rising tide of Chinese to the city, Chiang Mai-based Standard Tour will promote more FIT packages and Mandarin-led tours, and will appoint a new marketing representation in Guangzhou by this year-end. Similarly, plans to appoint a marketing representative in Shanghai and Beijing by next year are in the pipeline for Bangkok’s Discovery Holidays.

Prasit Itthipattanakul, general manager, inbound & transportation division at Standard Tour, said: “More scheduled flights are better than charters (in growing arrivals). This year, we’ve already seen a growth of more than 100 per cent from last year in Chinese inbound business to Chiang Mai. The Chinese inbound market is likely to stay strong next year, although we are awaiting to see any impact from the new Chinese tourism law.”

Wacharaporn Phiewkaow, managing director of Discovery Holidays, added: “These air links will boost FIT demand to Chiang Mai and help to grow the quality of Chinese travellers. Compared with groups, Chinese FITs tend to have better destination knowledge and higher expenditure levels, and are also more experienced travellers.

“Overall, we’re expecting 30-40 per cent increase in Chinese business to Thailand next year, with a forecasted growth of about 20 per cent for Chinese arrivals to Chiang Mai.”

Prasit pointed out that Chinese travellers to Chiang Mai are more likely to be FITs or repeat visitors to the country, as first-timers tend to visit Bangkok and/or Phuket.

THE scenic Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan province has gained greater stardom following the premiere of 2009 science-fiction movie, Avatar, which was filmed at the natural attraction known for its spectacular columnar land formations.

Yang Qian, operation manager of Zhangjiajie Neosalle International Travel Service told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Avatar was so popular that it made our mountains famous worldwide. People who saw the movie wondered where that beautiful place was located.”

Yang said the number of tour groups to the national park had tripled since the movie hit the screens, and added that tourists could easily spend up to three days there should they desire a complete tour of the destination.

According to the Zhangjiajie Tourism website, there are now 854 hotels in the park and 53 of them are star-rated.

Two- to three-day photography tours are offered to avid Avatar fans who want to be photographed at specific film locations, Yang said.

Riding on the global popularity, the park renamed one of its mountain peaks – the South Pillar of the Heaven that was said to have inspired the movie’s director James Cameron – to Hallelujah Mountain in 2010, after the floating rocks in the film. The peak stands 1,074m above sea level.

According to Yang, travellers from South Korea and Thailand formed the bulk of park visitors, although there is a growing number from Europe.

The park will likely attract more attention with its glass bridge in the Great Gorge scenic park within Zhangjiajie, slated for completion by the end of 2014. Joining the summits of two mountains, the glass bridge will rise 400m from the ground and span 365m long and 3.2m wide. It will be the world’s tallest and longest of its kind.

Built with a special glass floor, visitors will not only be able to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Great Gorge, they will also be able to literally walk in the air.