2019.04.08
On the afternoon of April 4, 2019, the World Tourism Alliance (WTA) organized its first Member’s Day at Club Med Opio en Provence Resort.The event was hosted by Club Med, a member of the WTA Council. The theme of the Member’s Day was: Localization Strategy – Entering the Global Market. Over 40 representatives of European and Chinese members of the WTA, including Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs Group (PVCP Group), Ville de Carcassonne, China Tours Hamburg GmbH, Russian Travel Association “World Without Borders”, China Association of Travel Services (CATS) and CAISSA Tourism Group participated in the activities.
Duan Qiang, Chairman of WTA, said in his speech that the Member’s Day is a gathering of the WTA family and a platform for WTA members to establish contact, deepen friendship and explore cooperation with stakeholders. Mr. Duan Qiang thanked Club Med and the city of Opio for their strong support to the first WTA Member’s Day, and hoped that in the future, more members would take part in the Member’s Day activities in various ways.
Henri Giscard d’Estaing, Vice Chairman of WTA and President of Club Med, and Li Xinyu, Vice President of WTA Council member Ctrip Group, delivered presentations on theme. Giscard d’Estaing briefly introduced the cooperation between Club Med and Fosun Group in global resort construction and development over recent years, and attributed the success of their cooperation to the attitude of listening and collaboration. In his view, the Provence region represents the direction of tourism development, and tourism in the future will be more seamlessly integrated into people’s daily life and technological innovation. Li Xinyu shared with the guests Ctrip’s successful experience in developing an international brand, and gave an analysis based on real cases how localization strategy had helped his company reach out from Asia to the world and grow into a world-leading online tourism platform with 300 million members and a scale comparable to Expedia.
The participants welcomed the effect of the event and the arrangements made by the host. The representative of the European Federation of Chinese Tourism said that the WTA Member’s Day made her feel at home. Airbnb said that they would make a good plan for the Member’s Day to be organized together with the WTA in late May. The Bulgarian Castle “In Love with the Wind” approached the WTA Secretariat on site and offered to host future Member’s Day activities.
During the Member’s Day, Chairman Duan Qiang presented membership certificates to DFS Group and Castle “In Love with the Wind”. Mr. Yan Zhenquan, Director of the China Cultural Center in Paris, and Mr. Thierry Occelli, Mayor of Opio, attended the event as special guests.