China International Travel Mart (CITM), jointly sponsored by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Shanghai Municipal People’s Government/Yunan Provincial People’s Government, and General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, is an annual event that is held in Shanghai and Kunming alternatively. Up to the present, CITM has been held nine times successively, five times in Shanghai and four times in Yunnan.
CITM 2007, the 9th CITM, was held in Kunming International Convention & Exhibition Center, Yunnan Province from November 1 to 4, 2007. The CITM 2007 covered an area of 50,000 square meters and consisted of 2,193 exhibition booths, including 1,355 domestic booths and 838 overseas booths, making up 62 percent and 38 percent of the total respectively.
Exhibitors from the following 92 countries and regions attended the CITM 2007: China, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong SAR, Oman, Brunei, Singapore, Japan, Syria, Indonesia, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, Philippines, Nepal, India, Vietnam, Qatar, Laos, Taiwan Region, Israel, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Macao SAR, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Greece, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Latvia, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Finland, Australia, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Niue, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Namibia, Botswana, Seychelles, Egypt, Mozambique.
It is the first time for the following 11 countries and regions to participate in the CITM: Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Latvia, Namibia, Botswana, Bangladesh, Estonia, Lithuania, and Belarus.
CITM2007 showed the following characteristics in terms of scale, the quantity of exhibitors, internationalization, diversified sectors of trades and exhibition level:
I. A larger scale and more featured booths construction. Exhibitors put more efforts in the booth construction with their characteristics.A total of 2,056 booths on raw space were constructed and the standard shell scheme booths numbered 137, making up 94 percent and 6 percent of the total respectively.
II. More striking influence and larger attendance. As a stage of enhancing the tourism cooperation in Asia, CITM has been constantly expanded its influence and has attracted more and more international and domestic exhibitors. CITM 2007 had 222 delegations of exhibitors, including 31 delegations of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, 34 domestic independent delegations, and 157 overseas delegations. More than 3,800 exhibitors attended the CITM 2007 with 2,367 domestic ones and 1,513 overseas.
III. With more countries and regions attending CITM, more exhibitors and larger booths construction, the internationalization of CITM has been further up-leveled. Along with the speedy development of China's tourism industry and grown-up of CITM, the attention and eagerness of participation of the world tourism circles towards the mart have been continuously enhanced, thus greatly enhances the internationalization of the Mart. Firstly, an unprecedented 92 countries and regions participated in the Mart, 13 percent higher than the same period of the year 2005. Secondly, there were more international exhibitors than ever and the ratio of domestic booths to international booths was of more optimization.
IV. Diversified trades and richer contents. Enterprises from more diversified trades participated in the mart covering a wide variety of fields. Of the total exhibitors in this mart, travel services made up 36.26 percent; hotels & hotel management groups 25.43 percent; tourism bureaus 20.14 percent; tourist attractions (spots) 9.75 percent; airline companies 5.80 percent; cruise companies 0.52 percent; internet reservation system and others 0.48 percent; and other tourism enterprises 1.62 percent.
Ⅴ. CITM 2007 firstly established two official partner countries, further enlarging its role of international tourism exchange. The two official partner countries, Greece and India, both increased their delegation of exhibitors and enlarged booth scale. Greece had 80 exhibition booths, covering an area of 720 sq m and India had 28 booths, covering 252 sq m of area.
Ⅵ. Honored guests are of more quantity and high level. Exhibitors from home and abroad put more emphasis on CITM and up-level their booth standard. The annual CITM has already become an important stage for the exchange and cooperation among domestic and overseas tourism administrations.
