――Suzhou Tourism Bureau partners with Tujia to jointly create a model brand for China's tourism and vacation industry
On October 22, at the 2014 Jiangsu Tourism (Hong Kong) Promotion Conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, the Suzhou Tourism Bureau and Tujia.com held a press conference and signed an on-site agreement, announcing a strategic cooperation to jointly launch the “Suzhou lifestyle, enjoy travel with Tujia” tourism cooperation brand. Both parties will work through deep cooperation and joint promotion to establish this brand as a model in the national tourism and vacation field, advancing the innovative development of Suzhou’s tourism and vacation market. To date, Tujia has signed strategic cooperation agreements with 65 government agencies, including those at the provincial level such as Shandong, Fujian, and Chongqing. The Tujia model is becoming increasingly popular across various regions. This promotion conference also marks Tujia as the only corporate representative signing with the Suzhou Tourism Bureau at a provincial-level meeting.
Jiangsu Provincial Vice Governor Fu Ziying and the Director of the Hong Kong Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Leung King-kwok, attended the signing ceremony, showing great interest in Tujia’s development strategy. Zhu Guoqiang, Director of the Suzhou Tourism Bureau, and Shang Ying, Assistant General Manager and Director of Government Relations at Tujia.com, jointly completed the signing.
Director Zhu Guoqiang and Director Shang Ying jointly complete the signing ceremony
A powerful alliance ushers in a new major brand in China’s tourism market
The “Suzhou lifestyle, enjoy travel with Tujia” brand is the focal point of this strategic cooperation. The Suzhou Tourism Bureau and Tujia.com will leverage their respective strengths to build it into a globally renowned tourism and vacation brand. The network resources and media channel advantages of Tujia.com complement the resource strengths of the Suzhou Tourism Bureau. Their in-depth collaboration will create another highly visible major brand for China’s tourism market.
Suzhou is one of China’s first 24 historical and cultural cities. It is the birthplace and quintessence of Wu culture and has long been the political, economic, and cultural center of the Jiangnan region. Known for its unique classical gardens, Suzhou is hailed as the “City of Gardens in China” and is often referred to as “Paradise on Earth” and the “Oriental Water City.” Suzhou’s gardens are representatives of Chinese private gardens and have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In recent years, Suzhou has vigorously developed tourism in its ancient city, water town ancient towns, rural areas, and resort destinations, forming strong brand effects with excellent market responses.
Tujia.com seamlessly integrates vacation real estate services and service apartment leasing through its innovative O2O business model, providing a new solution for the management of real estate in China. At the same time, Tujia.com builds a trustworthy, flexible, and transparent e-commerce platform between travelers and property owners, offering tourists standardized, high-cost-performance new options for vacation accommodation.
As a leading company in China’s vacation rental industry and a well-known Chinese tourism brand, the cooperation between Tujia.com and the Suzhou Tourism Bureau not only reflects the necessity of combining emerging business models with premium tourism resources but also demonstrates both parties’ shared commitment to the importance of leisure and vacation brand development. In China’s upcoming era of leisure and vacation, “Suzhou lifestyle, enjoy travel with Tujia” will undoubtedly seize the opportunity as a major brand, becoming an outstanding choice for national leisure and vacation.
Tujia accelerates deployment, comprehensively upgrading Suzhou’s tourism industry chain
Following the partnership, Tujia.com will accelerate the deployment of “vacation rentals” in Suzhou. It is expected that within five years, the number of Tujia properties in the Suzhou area will expand to 3,000–5,000 units. This will significantly revitalize high-end vacant properties in urban areas and around tourist attractions, while promoting continuous improvement in supporting facilities such as dining and entertainment services nearby.
Tujia.com will also quickly introduce the management philosophy of “Tujia Homeaway Hotels”—“warm, comfortable, convenient, clean, and safe”—into Suzhou, creating a new in-depth travel experience for visitors that is “like home, great value, diverse room types, and private and relaxing,” thereby enhancing the overall vacation experience in Suzhou.
Additionally, Tujia.com and the Suzhou Tourism Bureau have reached consensus on talent cultivation. The Suzhou Tourism Bureau will actively support local educational institutions at all levels in establishing “Tujia Practical Teaching Bases” in collaboration with Tujia.com. Tujia.com will also prioritize offering employment and internship opportunities to recent graduates from Suzhou’s vocational colleges and universities, as well as to local professionals. This initiative aims to address local employment issues in tourism, hotel services, and management, help optimize career planning, and cultivate a new generation of apartment-style vacation talents.
The collaboration between the two parties not only creates a major tourism brand but also drives the comprehensive upgrade of Suzhou’s tourism industry chain in areas such as tourism real estate, catering and entertainment, hotel accommodations, tourism talent cultivation and employment, and tourism experiences. This holds significant importance for promoting the reform and development of Suzhou’s tourism industry, fully constructing the “Travel Freely in Jiangsu” system, and building new advantages in the development of the local modern service industry.