Reflecting the shift of the World Travel & Tourism Council’s focus toward emerging economies and the growing success of their China Initiative, the Chinese delegation at the recently concluded 11th Global Travel & Tourism Summit in Las Vegas exceeded 60 industry and government representatives, four of them new WTTC members.

The Chinese region best represented (delegation of 20) was Hainan, led by WTTC member Chen Feng, Chairman of the HNA Group, a large multi-industry enterprise group that operates in many sectors of Travel & Tourism and related industries—from air transport (with seven airlines) and airports, to hotels, real estate, logistics and retail.

Attendance included the Hainan People’s Government led by Tan Li, Vice Governor and Director General of the Hainan Tourism Development Commission, together with Lu Zhiyuan, Assistant Governor of Hainan Provincial People’s Government.

The study, soon to be completed, was especially timely since Hainan Island has been earmarked as an international resort island by China’s State Council. As a result, there is huge growing interest in the destination among tourism and hospitality investors and management companies—not least among WTTC Members.

Jean-Claude Baumgarten, a WTTC Vice-Chairman and the association’s former President & CEO, was invited to chair the Tourism International Advisory Board of Hainan Province. “I am very honored to accept this invitation,” Baumgarten said, “as this is the first time that a non-Chinese from the world of Travel & Tourism has been honored in such a way by the Hainan People’s Government.”

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), www.wttc.org