Beijing, China, May 16th-Despite the challenging credit environment, investors who were joining the Investor Rountable on China Travel Innovation Summit remain bullish about the long-term prospects of travel as an investment category.
China has been the hotbed for international investment over the past 10 years. The most successful Chinese travel and hospitality companies, such as Ctrip, eLong, Qunar, Kuxun, Home Inns, 7 days Inn and Orange Hotel are all backed by venture capital. Japan´s largest online retailer Rakuten achieved 360% return over three years on its initial investment of US$110 million from Ctrip.
But not all investors are steadfast or lucky enough to succeed in China. An investor roundtable at the upcoming China Travel Innovation Summit addressed the main challenges and opportunities of investing in China´s travel industry. Local travel gurus advised what kinds of travel businesses are preferred for investments in the short term and long term.
The China Travel Innovation Summit gathers the leaders of the Chinese travel industry—successful investors and executives that shared their outlook on the fast past growth and great opportunities of this market. Roundtable pundits include:
William Bao Bean, Partner, Softbank China&India Holdings
Allen Zhu, Partner, GSR Ventures
Erhai Liu, Managing Director, Legend Capital
Hai Wu, CEO, Orange Hotel Group
Startup Challenge was another exciting part of the Summit. 5 selected entrepreneurs from the startup companies who are less than 12 months in existence or companies leaving stealth mode (or are a little beyond startup) got the chance to demonstrate their innovative solutions or products that will significantly impact travel planning, purchasing and trending.Nile Guide (http://www.nileguide.com/), a US-based personalized trip planner and travel itinerary site, beat four other start-ups--YourTo, Feeyo.com, HiCafe and Lostrip – garnering the most SMS votes during the Startup Challenge Pitch and winning the TravelDaily Innovator Award.
The 2009 China Travel Innovation Summit was held at the Hotel New Otani Chang Fu Gong, Beijing from May 12-13, 2009. For more information, please visit the event website: http://summit.traveldaily.cn/innovation/index_en.asp
About TravelDaily
TravelDaily(www.traveldaily.cn) is China´s leading online publisher and event organizer focusing on distribution, marketing and technology developments in the travel and tourism industries.
