(Red dots show the places visited by the delegation)

Leaders from the nine top Chinese travel agencies returned to Beijing on May 27 after a six day fam trip jointly organized and hosted by Mr. Vertes Robert, Tourism Attache of the Hungarian Embassy and Ms. Lin Yu, Managing Director of the Travel World China with the supports of the Danubius Hotels Group and the Hainan Airlines.

Led by Ms. Yu, the nine members of the delegation are from the senior management of nine top travel agencies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou including the China CYTS Outbound Travel Service, the Beijing Utour International Travel Service, the Hua Yuan International Travel, the Shanghai CYTS, the Shanghai Jin Jiang Tours, the Shanghai China Women International Travel Service, the Guangdong China Youth Travel Service, the Guangdong China Travel Service and the Galaxia Group of China.

Departed from Beijing and arrived in Budapest, Hungary in the early morning of May 22, the delegation was warmly welcome by the representatives of the Danubius Hotels Group and transferred to Szentendre after a short rest at the Hilton Hotel. Szentendre is a charming town on the Danube bank of Hungary near Budapest, and has a lively art life blessed with a Mediterranean atmosphere. The delegation has visited many famous tourist attractions, such as the Catholic Cathedral, the Parliament, the Fishermen’s Bastion and the Heroes’ Square at Budapest, Lake Balaton, the golf court at the Royal Balaton Golf & Yacht Club and several bath areas. The delegates has also attended a festival at Etyek and enjoyed a cruise tour on the Lake Danube.

 

     

 

(Exterior of the Paliament)                                               (Interior of the Paliament)

 

Hungary is one of the countries famous for the hot spring baths. There is no other country all over the world matching her in having so many hot springs with so good a healing effect within such a small territory. The hot springs have become a main tourist attraction these days bringing in people around the world who would enjoy the hot springs and the water sports for health, entertainment, relaxation and healing power of the spring water. Spa treatments and hot spring activities are always included these days in those tour packages designed by the Chinese travel agencies. The delegation has visited and explored several famous baths such as the Szechenyi Bath, the Thermal Lake Heviz and the Cave Bath.

 

     

 

(The Royal Balaton Golf & Yacht Club)                         (The Heroes' Square in Budapest) 

 

One of the most important activities of the fam trip was to attend a workshop at the Sofitel Chain Bridge Hotel in Budapest on May 26. Thanks to the professional arrangement and coordination by the Hungary Tourism Board, the workshop was a great success and has covered several issues concerning the Chinese outbound tourism promotion and the utilization of the Hungarian tourism resources that would benefit both the Chinese travel agencies and their Hungarian counterparts.  Out of the workshop, the delegates have reached a general consensus that Hungary is a beautiful country rich in tourism resources, and this would make it a good combination with its neighboring countries such as Czech and Austria in the tour programs planned and developed for the Chinese travelers. The delegation has shown great interest in exploring the Hungarian tourism resources, and has agreed to consider expanding the scope of their current Eastern Europe routes to cover also Hungary after their trip back to China.

 

 

The fam trip was sponsored by the Danubius Hotels Group who has provided hotel accommodation and meals to the delegates. The Danubius Group has a total of 23 hotels in Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Romania and UK with sales representatives stationed in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, UK, USA and China. The Group entered the Chinese market in 2007, appointing the Travel World China ( an outbound tourism promotion company in Shanghai ) as their promotion representative in China.

 

According to the statistics released by the Hungary Tourism Board, the number of inbound tourists from China has increased by 30% in year-to-date 2009 while the numbers of tourists from other major countries have been declined as compared to the same period of last year. In view of this change, the Danubius Group has recognized the importance of the Chinese inbound market for their business and future and believed that a fam trip to the trade professionals would be a good way to promote their hotels and services among the travel agencies and prospective travelers from China.

 

 

 

 

Click here to view more pictures about the FAM trip.

Source：Travel World China