ITB China 2025 breaks records with 35% attendee surge

Trade Arabia

2 days ago

ITB China 2025, the premier B2B trade show dedicated to the Chinese travel market, reported a record-breaking success with the event welcoming more than 20,500 attendees, marking a 35% year-over-year growth in attendance.
The event featured a 30% expansion in net exhibition area compared to 2024 and welcomed over 700 exhibitors from 85 countries. The attendees included 1,400 high-quality buyers and around 280 media representatives – reflecting the soaring demand and global interest in China's travel market.
It also facilitated over 38,800 high-value business meetings, establishing a new standard for industry engagement. At the ITB China Conference, 150 high-profile speakers delivered insights on 60 diverse topics, fostering innovation and driving global collaboration across the tourism industry.
ITB China 2025 set new records in scale and innovation, marking a pivotal moment for international engagement with China's travel industry. The three-day show attracted a record number of exhibitors and participants, delivered high-impact content and facilitated valuable business opportunities, strongly reflecting the market's renewed dynamism. Leading figures from across the travel sector showcased their latest offerings and solutions, demonstrating a clear and collective commitment to unlocking growth in China's dynamic travel market, a statement said.
David Axiotis, Managing Director, Messe Berlin China, reflected: 'ITB China 2025 stands as a landmark success – uniting a record-breaking international presence with cutting-edge insights that are shaping the future of travel. From the resurgence of Chinese cross-border tourism to the rise of smart, themed, and personalized travel, this year's show not only reflected the market momentum, but clearly accelerated it. By fostering global collaboration, spotlighting innovation, and amplifying the voice of China's travel industry, we are actively shaping the travel landscape of tomorrow.'
Top-Level gathering
The impactful C-Talks welcomed more than 30 senior C-level executives from China's leading outbound travel companies and high-ranking officials from national tourism boards and ministries worldwide to discuss how Chinese key industry players can collaborate more effectively with international destinations to foster resilient and sustainable growth in today's complex global landscape. The highly successful gathering is a testament to ITB China's ability to convene key figures from the Chinese market and the global travel industry.
This year's show welcomed an all-time high of 1,400 hand-picked buyers from across China and around the world, including representation from all Chinese provincial-level regions – a first in the show's history – as well as inbound buyers from 19 countries, such as Germany, Italy, UK, France, and the US. Over the course of the three-day show, the buyers engaged in more than 38,800 meetings with over 700 exhibitors, fostering valuable partnerships and new collaborations. The positive feedback from attendees further solidifies ITB China's position as the premier travel event in China.
Norhayati Zainuddin, Deputy Director / Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, this year's Partner Destination, emphasised: 'Since we brought a larger delegation from Malaysia this year, the feedback from our Malaysia sales staff has been very positive. As they have met many buyers during the business meetings, not only from China but also from other countries, they were able to close more deals. They were happy with this year's participation and hope to participate again at next year's ITB China.'
Aileen Chan, Expedia Group's Vice President, Private Label Solutions, APAC, shared: 'We are seeing surging demand from different travel segments in the China travel market. Based on our recent research, 87% of Chinese travelers said they will travel internationally – this percentage is way higher than the global average of about 68%. Around 65% of Chinese travelers say they are likely to increase their travel budget, which is something we are really excited about.'
An official from the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism stated: 'ITB China is a vital platform for boosting international tourism cooperation. The Hubei delegation, made up of eight cities and over 60 key companies, introduced two premium travel routes and highlighted cultural and tech experiences like intangible heritage displays and tea tasting. They held more than 200 business meetings with buyers from around the world, seeing strong results. Hubei is working to become a world-renowned cultural tourism destination and looks forward to expanding global partnerships.'
Li Zhuyuan, Executive President and Secretary-General of MICE Committee of China Association of Travel Services, said: 'China's MICE market is huge and is an industry that can create higher added value. The development of AI technology poses challenges to offline manual operations, but it is also an inevitable trend. We should embrace the arrival of new technologies and let it create higher value for the MICE industry.'
Kim Daeyong, Legal representative of China Regional Corporation of Modetour Network, said: 'China's visa-free policy has had a significant impact on Korean tourists traveling to China. For our company, business in the first half of this year increased by more than 20% compared to last year. We met many Chinese partners at ITB China this time, and they were all very enthusiastic, which will be very helpful for us in developing new Chinese tourism products in the future.'
Key themes
The 'China Outbound Travel' theme highlighted how new products and innovations are reshaping group tours. Overseas destinations are meeting the diverse needs of Chinese travelers by offering local, tailored services, and using new media to efficiently convert interest into bookings.
The 'China Inbound Travel' theme offered insights from the World Tourism Alliance (WTA) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) into China's inbound tourism growth and its economic impact. It further highlighted market differences and content marketing strategies for revitalizing cultural destinations, as well as demonstrating how rural tourism can promote sustainable global growth.
The 'MICE & Business Travel' theme highlighted how cultural experiences are energizing MICE tourism and examined China's growth in the global convention market. Additionally, it emphasized the role of business associations in fostering cooperation and shared global insights on travel supply and the promising role of AI in business travel management.
With a focus on the strong recovery of China's upscale hotel market, the 'Hotel and Hospitality' theme explored how localized experiences boost competitiveness, analyzed brand diversification strategies in profit models, and highlighted the ways in which AI and big data are driving deep industry transformation.
The 'Travel Tech Innovation' theme delved into smart tech and innovation across three key areas: destination management, hotel services, and sustainable tourism. It covered topics ranging from AI and digital travel to extended reality (XR), demonstrating how these technologies, such as smart robots, are shaping the future of hospitality.
In response to the growing demand for personalised, internet-based travel products in China's increasingly segmented outbound market, ITB China launched six panels dedicated to themed and customized travel. Senior Tourism, Educational Travel, Cruise Travel, Customized Travel, Luxury Travel, and Adventure Tourism.
Networking Events
Further valuable opportunities for attendees to connect and collaborate were provided at ITB China. The prestigious Grand Opening Dinner, held in partnership with this year's Partner Destination, Malaysia, featured 700 guests and VIPs from the global and Chinese travel industry. Welcome speeches were given by the Honorable Dato Sri Tiong King Sing, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia; Xu Peng, Vice Chair, World Tourism Alliance (WTA); and David Ruetz, Senior Vice President of Messe Berlin.
Other events included the Hubei Networking Lunch with the Department of Culture and Tourism of Hubei Province, the Cruise Night with Trip.com Group, the Beijing Night with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the Guangxi Night with the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Travel Innovators Gathering, sponsored by Tencent Smart Tourism; the Aftershow Sundowner, the MICE Afterparty, and the 'Meet the Media' networking event.