GITF2024 Arrives as Scheduled A Summer Gathering in Guangzhou to Share an International Tourism Feast

2024-06-06

From May 16 to 18, 2024, GITF2024 is officially held in Guangzhou. At this global tourism event, travel enthusiasts immerse themselves in the vibrant displays and the highly anticipated global tourism trends.

During these precious three days, global tourism industry practitioners once again gathered in Guangzhou to focus on the critical theme of global sustainable development. This year, the 32nd Guangzhou International Travel Fair, themed "Innovation, the Inspiration to Future of Cultural and Tourism" continued to present authoritative tourism information, professional concurrent events, and high-quality exhibition services. As the topics of high-quality development and the mission to uncover new productivity converged, this premier travel fair in Guangzhou sparked face-to-face exchanges and collision within the industry, igniting new sparks of innovation and driving momentum for growth.

What were the must-see highlights of this exhibition?

A Grand Showcase Featuring Top Tourism Exhibitors

With a tradition of openness and inclusiveness, Guangzhou, the millennium commercial capital, used exhibitions to provide a platform for exhibitors to shine. As a national central city and a core city in the Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou became a stage to showcase the latest industry trends. As an important tourist destination, source market, and hub city, Guangzhou International Travel Fair, which has been held for 32 years, has established itself as an international tourism trendsetter and one of the oldest professional tourism exhibitions in China. This grand showcase in the international tourism exhibition gathered top tourism exhibitors in Guangzhou to display the latest global tourism trends.

GITF2024 boasted a larger scale, with more enthusiastic participation from domestic and international exhibitors. Major exhibitors from 55 countries and regions, including Azerbaijan, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, the USA, Poland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Cuba, South Korea, the Philippines, Kenya, Peru, Nepal, Chile, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Ecuador, Ireland, Hong Kong, and Macau, participated in GITF2024.

With a wide scope, GITF2024 aimed to create a cultural and tourism buzz. Nearly 40 domestic cultural and tourism departments/bureaus and enterprises from Sichuan, Hubei, Hainan, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guiyang, Anshun, Qiannan, Bijie, Chengdu, Qiqihar, Ningbo, Chenzhou, Nyingchi, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Meizhou, Zhanjiang, Qingyuan, Guangzhou, and others made an appearance, showcasing new cultural and tourism highlights.

Industrial Tourism: A New Journey Begins. Visitors experienced the charm of industrial tourism at GITF2024. Hannover, a city known for its natural beauty and urban landscapes, attracted numerous domestic and international tourists and business professionals annually. In addition to hosting large-scale exhibitions and events, Hannover is renowned for its rich history and cultural heritage, offering cultural exploration tours with its world-class museums and art institutions. The German company Deutsche Messe and its Chinese subsidiary Hannover Milano Fairs Shanghai Ltd. invited visitors to experience the charm of the Hannover Messe and explore the mysteries of German Industry 4.0 up close. Other industrial exhibitions, such as PTC ASIA, CeMAT AISA, MWCS, IAS, and CDIIF, also showcased the appeal of industrial tourism.

Two New Zones: Unlocking the Imagination of the Future

The booming Chinese auto market has driven the demand for self-drive tours. According to the China Research Industry Institute, the Chinese study tour market exceeded 225 billion yuan in 2023, with the overall market size expected to reach 242.2 billion yuan by 2026. In line with these two major trends, GITF2024 featured new zones: Vanlife Zone and Study Tour Zone, opening the imagination for future cultural tourism. In the Vanliefe Zone, renowned car brands like XPeng Motors, Dongfeng Nissan, Ford Bronco, Dongfeng M-Hero, and GAC Trumpchi showcased new models. Visitors explored eco-friendly vehicle mobile competitions, RVs, and antique car displays, experiencing the joy of self-drive tours and the freedom of travel on wheels.

As the audience of study tours is constantly expanding, this form of study tours is also related to thousands of households. The value of study tours is widely recognized and also promotes the diversified development of the market. The Study Tour Zone, a new addition to GITF2024, attracted study tour bases and institutions from Guangdong, Hubei, Hainan, Hong Kong, Luoyang, and more. Notably, GITF2024 featured the "Hong Kong Study Tour Pavilion," co-created with the Hong Kong Study Tour Association, showcasing Hong Kong's cultural characteristics and valuable study tour resources, promoting deep exchanges between students from the mainland and Hong Kong. For the first time, Guangzhou Broadcasting Network (GZBN) debuted at GITF, creating a new brand for study tour, aiming to promote Guangzhou's study tour resources and foster the integration of study tour activities through its offline study tour IP and the online city-wide study tour supervision platform. Visitors experienced the charm of technology and culture fusion and witness the future trends of the media industry. Through the content presentation of its series of video accounts, GZBN MCN Matrix vividly presented the local customs and local flavor of Guangzhou and the authentic Guangfu culture to the audience. A live streaming studio at the booth hosted a series of exciting cultural and tourism live broadcasts themed "Cultural and Tourism Starting from Flower City."

Three Interactive Experiences Create a New Magnetic Field for the Tourism Fair

Visitors can find their most comfortable "posture" for the travel fair through three specially curated interactive fields, feeling the "magnetic field" of the Guangzhou International Travel Fair.

Live Streaming Interaction: Engaging and Immersive. The debut of the "GITF Live Streaming Festival" broke boundaries online and offline. The three-day live streaming relay set a new record for GITF, featuring services like fair tour, and live streaming adding to cart. Ten major cultural and tourism live streaming studios gathered on-site, including popular influencers. Exclusive and unique cultural and tourism products from scenic spots like Huangguoshu Waterfall, Sunac Park, Guangzhou Elegant Hotel, Tianhe Hilton Hotel, and Dongguan Banyan Tree Hotel were launched during the live streaming festival. The first "Most Popular Cultural and Tourism Influencer in Tourist Destinations" selection event also debuted.

Tourism Marketplace: High Popularity. The busiest spot at GITF undoubtedly was the pavilion where numerous travel agencies gathered. Exhibitors like Guangdong CTS, GZL, Comfort Travel Service, Hua Cheng Cultural Tourism (Jinma), Holiday Passage, Ctrip, Hong Kong CTS, China Southern Airlines, AirAsia, and MSC Cruises were ready for promotions, launching the "Travel Fair Month" promotion with a wide range of travel products, multiple discounts, and generous travel subsidy vouchers for the public. Exhibitors like Canton Tower, Guangzhou Metro, GZBN, Tanjing, and Hello Inc created interactive experiences for the public.

Cultural IPs: Diverse and Intriguing. As cultural creativity becomes a cultural symbol, the stories behind cultural and creative products become even more captivating. GITF2024 featured the Greater Bay Area Cultural IP Pavilion, creating a 1,000-square-meter Greater Bay Area Cultural IP joint platform in collaboration with Guangzhou Xinhua Group, Guangdong Animation Association, Southern Cultural Exchange, and Foxi Hui'er, engaging closely with the audience. The official exhibition partner IP "Foxi Hui'er" has designed four limited-edition Guangzhou cultural and tourism theme badges, showcasing the unique "Buddhist" lifestyle attitude of Guangzhou.

Four Major Sections Gather Trendy Lifestyles

Tourism is an attitude and a lifestyle. Visiting a travel fair is an immersive way to experience trendy lifestyles.

GITF2024 featured four major sections that showcased people's aspirations. In the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, various intangible cultural heritage items and representative inheritors presented to display Canton porcelain, Canton Embroidery, Ivory (Bone) Carving, Canton Jade Carving, Canton Wood Carving, etc. Visitors experienced these cultural and artistic treasures up close. The B&B Section offered a glimpse into the "ideal life" with 12 Guangzhou Red Cotton Star Homestays, creating homestay experience spaces. Visitors immersed themselves in these beautiful mini-worlds while engaging in exciting cultural handcraft projects.

As digitalization accelerates into daily life, the fusion of culture and technology becomes more pronounced. The TECT Digital Culture and Tourism Zone showcased the latest high-tech industries and achievements related to tourism. Exhibitors presented innovative experiences in cultural tourism.

The popular Bay Area Creative Culture, Sports, and Tourism Zone returned with an upgrade. This year, the "Bay Area Amazing Plan" was continued, with the idea of "'Travel' with You" to create a platform for interesting travel buddies to meet in the Bay Area. Travel buddies created experiences together and started socializing here. Whether you're an extrovert or introvert, you could find your favorite experience and trendy ways of playing here.

Five Forums to Explore Industry Development Paths

The concurrent forums at GITF were vital platforms for the industry to explore development paths. This year, five significant forums were held.

In the afternoon on May 16 (Thursday), from 13:30pm to 17:00pm, the "TECT Tech Enabling Culture and Tourism Forum" was held in the context of the "14th Five-Year Plan for Cultural and Tourism Technology Innovation." Top experts and leading enterprises in the cultural tourism industry discussed the integration of technology and cultural tourism from a cross-disciplinary perspective, providing new insights for the industry. This year, GITF continued to cooperate with IPSOS, a leading global market research group and China's largest market research company, to tailor a digital, sports, cultural and tourism industry analysis report for GITF. In the same afternoon from 14:00pm to 17:00pm, the "2024 World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) International Communication Forum and Media Branch Meeting" were taken place. The forum delved into the current state of international communication, media promotion strategies in the new media era, and exemplary cases of international tourism city communication. It also explored communication methods on international and domestic social media, strategies for internet celebrity economy in the new media era, and the role of international and domestic internet celebrity effect in the communication pattern and other topics.

As China's outbound tourism rapidly develops, China is increasingly recognized as a major source market. The "China Outbound Tourism Conference, held from 9:00 am to 13:00 pm on May 17 (Friday) was now in its fourth session since 2020. Many experts, scholars, and industry professionals from world-class institutions presented the international tourism industry's judgment and expectations on China's outbound tourism market from multiple angles, levels, and diversity.

Focusing on study tour topic, the "Exploring New Paths for Destination Tourism and Study Tours Forum" was held in the afternoon of May 17(Friday), from 14:00 to 17:00. Representatives from domestic and international tourism boards discussed how to promote and attract visitors, creating appealing travel destinations. The forum also paid special attention to the field of study tours and explore how to combine tourism and education.

Moreover, in the afternoon of May 18 (Saturday), from 14:00pm to 17:00pm, GITF moved to Guangzhou's hottest new cultural landmark, the Guangzhou Museum of Art (New Pavilion), for a "Bringing Cultural Relics to Life Live" sharing session. In addition to inviting curators of representative museums in the city as well as experts in the field, major member organizations of the Chinese Museum Association was invited to participate in this forum to discuss the innovation and breakthroughs of the museums at this stage, so that the cultural relics collected in the museums, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the words written in the ancient books would all come alive.

Taking GITF2024 as a platform, Guangzhou will continue to show its elegance as a world-class tourist destination and extend a warm invitation to the world with the spirit of an open and inclusive city.