Mr. Marcel Schneider began by mentioning TUI China's acquisition of an outbound license. It was with great humility that TUI China received the news last year in May that it had been selected as one of three privileged joint venture companies to participate in CNTA's pilot project. Mr. Schneider was quoted as saying "We believe that this step-by-step approach is a very well thought out approach. It will allow the industry to grow stronger in a gradual manner and maintain the confidence of all industry stakeholders and very importantly, the consumers."

This point led on to how TUI China will approach its entry into the outbound market. Mr. Schneider outlined that it would build on the foundation of an already successful Chinese outbound industry, while also taking into account the rapidly changing requirements of the Chinese consumer. He then stated that "We will not try to compete on price only, but instead will focus on creating innovative products, improve the quality of services and spare no effort on staff training".

The future of outbound travel looks very promising. Only a few days ago the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer was released showing that global tourism had grown by 4.4% in 2011 to achieve 980 million arrivals, and was on track to reach one billion arrivals by the end of 2012.

Mr. Schneider was also very upbeat about the future of TUI China’s traditional core business, China's inbound travel market. "In 2010 we were very proud to achieve a new milestone in bringing 50,000 foreign travelers to China. Last year we forecast that China would receive 60 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2020 (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) and we remain confident that China will achieve this. Recent developments in the tourism infrastructure including new hotels, a state of the art high speed railway system and direct international flights to 2nd and 3rd tier cities will support the continued growth."

To conclude, Mr. Schneider wished everyone present a successful, happy and healthy New Year of the Dragon.