China Eastern partners with Disney to tap tourism market

A memorandum of understanding was signed between China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd and Disney Destinations International on Friday to promote their business in China's tourism market.

The cooperation will focus on three key areas — developing holiday packages for guests to experience Disney Destinations, conducting co-branded marketing and promotional activities, and leveraging distribution channels to help distribute Disney's popular products and services — said Aliana Ho, vice-president of Asia-Pacific regional sales and travel operations, The Walt Disney Co (Asia-Pacific) Ltd.

Fresh data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization shows that China was the largest outbound tourism market for the second consecutive year after surpassing Germany in 2012, with 98.2 million person-trips in 2013.

China's expenditure on travel abroad reached $102 billion in 2012, making it the top tourism source market in the world in terms of spending. In 2013, the domestic tourism market posted 3.25 billion person-trips, and the total expenditure was more than threefold that of 2008 at $403 billion.

Contact the writer at wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn