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Hardware, Channels, Environment and Marketing—Enlightenments from Sanya’s Development of Convention Industry

2016/5/13

An ancient Chinese saying goes that “Any mountain can be famous with the presence of an immortal and any river can be holy with the presence of a dragon.”

With a population of less than 700,000, Sanya made remarkable achievements again in convention industry in 2015. Under the pressure of sharp shrank of government-run and state-own conferences, Sanya achieved outstanding achievements with undertaking more than 12,000 conferences, which is admired by other cities. What push Sanya to achieve such great achievements? The keys to its success are hardware, channels, environment and marketing, which should be learnt by us.

Hardware

Located in the remotest corner of China, Sanya has a small area, but it owns more than 50 high-end hotels with comprehensive conference facilities, nearly all high-end hotels have large-scale conference rooms. Take Sanya Bay Mangrove Tree Resort Hotel for example, the Hotel has nearly 4,000 rooms, 30 conference rooms available for all types of conferences. Among which, there are 2 conference rooms with an area of more than 5,000 square meters, 2 with more than 2,000 square meters and 4 with more than 1,000 square meters. The hotel is also comprehensively equipped with leisure and entertainment facilities and conference facilities are linked with rooms, which create an arrangement of high-end atmosphere. Other hotels in Sanya are respectively different, while their comprehensive conference security system provides rich choices for convention industries from home and abroad.

Channels

Another important factor for hotels in Sanya to undertake large amount of conferences is that it has a great number of international brand hotels and domestic large chain hotel groups. International top brand hotels like Sheraton, The Rite-Carlton, St.Regis, Inter Continental Hotels, MGM, Mandarin Oriental, Conrad, Hilton, Kempinski and Marriott are everywhere. Standing on the shoulder of these hotels, Sanya finely connects itself with globe, opens international and home communication channels to build a smooth road to undertake international and domestic conferences. Domestic large chain groups tightly attach Sanya to mainland, forming a fluent channel for marketing.

Environment

Although Sanya is lack of deep cultural accumulation, while under the forging of government and community, Sanya has become the brightest pearl of Hainan international travel island by organically combining sunshine, sea, beaches, rainforest, hot spring with local culture and customs, creating a marvelous environment. What’s more special is that Sanya links its geographical position with “One belt, one road”, which has made Sanya into an important place for national leaders to meet with foreign guests and launch state activities. The picturesque landscape has created an infinite glamorous environment and state activities has been the important resources, which change Sanya’s geographical location as the remotest corner of China, turning Sanya into the centre of Asia.

Marketing

People in Hainan Province know well of marketing; people in Sanya are good at marketing. Sanya has done many eye-catching activities like New Silk Road Model Contest and Miss World. It seems that large sums of money have been spent on the activities, but what they bring to Sanya is global influence. Among the exhibitions I have participated in different places these years, I can always see the booths from Sanya. The unique tropical setting of wind, waves, coconut groves, blue sea, blue sky and white clouds has drew the attention of MICE industry, Sanya has been hailed as the top destination city.

Although Xiamen has struggled hard to development convention and exhibition industry, gained favorable achievements and formed unique characteristics. But comparing with Sanya, Xiamen still has untapped potential to develop, to explore. I think that Sanya has provided at least four enlightenments for us.

First, hotels’ building should be matched with large-scale conference facilities, or hotels are just simple hotels no matter how high-level they are. The relevant administration competent department should offer guidance.

Second, paying attention to introduce international top brand hotels—the shortcuts to connect with world. What Sanya has achieved can also be achieved by Xiamen, we need views and visions.

Third, government and enterprises should take the responsibility to market and be involved actively. While focusing on domestic marketing, we need to promote international marketing as well, especially the marketing of events. Have we ever marketed projects like Lingling Circus and Fangte Fantasy Kingdom or have we ever made use of their advantages to market?

Fourth, build environment. Xiamen is a parallel seashore city as Sanya in mainland with beautiful natural scenery. We have deeper culture, larger economic aggregate, city size and population, what we need is “top-level design.” We have favorable advantages to build Xiamen into a world class city of leisure, tourism and MICE, and the keys to success are laid on our determination.(Zheng Zhi, the President of Xiamen Convention & Exhibition Association)