Can Barbados successfully tap the exploding Chinese tourism market?

Chinese tourists at Cricket World Cup 2007

Adrian Loveridge – tourism expert, hotel owner

The name Wang Jianlin may not resonate with you, but according to the South China Morning Post he is the richest man in China and recently announced plans to build the world’s biggest tourism enterprise which will overtake the current giant, Disney.

The chairman of the Wanda Group stated that his holding company will achieve an annual revenue of 100 billion Yuan (one Yuan currently equals .16 US Cents), attain annual net profits of US$10 billion and handle 200 million visitors by as early as 2020.

At this stage he has not ruled out entry into the aviation segment after China lifted a five year restrictions on applications for new airlines in 2013 ‘spawning a wave of privately owned start-up carriers’.

To even try and understand the exponential growth, Wanda’s in house travel agency revenue is expected to reach 10 billion Yuan this year, 20 billion by 2017 and 40 billion by 2020.

Last month Wang together with Tencent Holdings and Citic Capital led a US$967 million acquisition of ticketing website, Ly.com, which is currently the country’s third largest online travel site in terms of revenue generated.

The Wanda Group includes the ownership and/or management of over 70 luxury hotels, the world’s largest cinema operation, 110 plazas, 22 million square metres of leasable property, film and television production, substantial print media interests, art investment with total assets exceeding US$85 billion and spanning across four continents.