Close to the next event from China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM) in May they announced a new partnership with the Africa Travel Association (ATA). The goal is to enhance relationships and build a stronger network between the Chinese travel industry and African tourism destinations (There are more than 26 African nations with ADS status).

Following the new partnership their will be a significant number of exhibitors from Africa at the COTTM exhibition in Beijing from May 14th till 16th. Exhibitors from various fields of tourism will be expected: Safari organizers, hotel groups from different African countries, travel agencies and tourism authorities.

First tickets for Beijing Olympic Games have been sold on 15.04.2007. Chinese mainland residents as well as Expatriates living on Chinese mainland can order their tickets on www.tickets.beijing2008.cn and on 1,000 designated domestic Bank of China.

There are more than seven million tickets available for Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. According to officials from the Beijing Olympic Organization Committee 75% of the tickets will be available for the domestic market.

People from other countries, as well as residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, can order tickets from their own Olympic committees and special points of sale to the same price.

Today I added a graph showing the development of chinese dometic tourism from 1985 to 2001. These statistics of chinese domestic tourism are based on the official China Statistical Yearbook 2003. Not only the development of domestic tourists is interessting, who are mainly workers travelling home for holydays, but also the groth of group travells within china.

Group travellers within china are in fact a high potential market for travel agencys and travel operators. The groth in this sector underlines the importance of domestic leisure tourism in China.