Brand USA, the destination marketing organisation for the US, teamed up with United Airlines and others to host its first China familiarisation tour – a “Megafam” initiative to boost inbound tourism from China.
The tour saw delegates from some 50 Chinese tour operators visit landmark US cities, including New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and experience regional destinations such as Stony Brook (New York State), Mystic (Conneticut) and Estes Park (Colorado) from October 19-27.
Partner tourism boards and destination marketing organisations included NYC & Company, Connecticut Office of Tourism, Discover Long Island, Visit Denver, Visit Houston, Travel Texas and Destination DC.
“We’ve been working with our partners for some time to host a familiarisation tour of qualified tour operators from China as part of the US-China Tourism Year strategy,” says Thomas Garzilli, chief marketing officer for Brand USA.
The US-China Tourism Year was launched by US President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2015 to enhance the tourism and travel industries in both countries.
Walter Dias, United Airline’s managing director for Greater China and Korea sales, says: “We’re excited to be partnering with Brand USA to continue the momentum of the US-China Tourism Year on this Megafam to promote the United States to Chinese tourists.”
Since the Megafam program began in 2013, Brand USA has hosted more than 700 international travel agents and tour operators from destinations such as Australia, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Other initiatives
February 2016 saw Brand USA – which has representative offices in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai – team up with the China National Tourism Administration and the US Department of Commerce to host a gala in Beijing for the launch of the Tourism Year.
The event took place during Brand USA’s primary sales mission to China.
In addition, the organisation recently launched a “China readiness” training program, which is being made available to all partners and at regional tourism conferences around the US over the next year.
