Grand Ceremony for HowToTrip & Zhongwei Strategic Cooperation and Investment Promotion Conference for Shapotou Water Town Held with Pomp
On the afternoon of August 28, Zhongwei witnessed a major event of provincial significance: the “Desert Water City, Travel Freely with HowToTrip” HowToTrip Strategic Cooperation Ceremony in Zhongwei and the Investment Promotion Conference for Shapotou Water Town were grandly held at the Conference Center of Hongbao Hotel in Zhongwei City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Leaders and guests including Ma Tingli, Vice Chairman of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Secretary of the Zhongwei Municipal Party Committee, and Director of the Municipal People's Congress; Xu Liqun, Mayor of Zhongwei; Luo Jun, Co-founder and CEO of HowToTrip; and Ma Suli, Chairwoman of Xi’an Jiuyuan Group, attended the event. Meanwhile, 800 merchants from Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia gathered here, making it the largest-scale investment promotion event in Zhongwei’s history. HowToTrip also became the brightest star of the conference.
“HowToTrip Model” Creates a New Mode of Tourism Services in Northwest China
HowToTrip Group is China’s first professional integrated operator of mid-to-high-end vacation apartments that relies on international decentralized hotel management and service standards, closely integrates the revitalization of offline idle property resources, and is supported by a 24-hour call center service. Its affiliates, including HowToTrip Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., have formed a diversified industrial chain and scale advantage through multi-dimensional coverage and multi-angle integration.
“The northwestern region is an important highland for the development of China’s tourism industry and also a window for us to fully open up the northwest market,” said Luo Jun, Co-founder and CEO of HowToTrip, in an interview with reporters. He stated that HowToTrip attaches great importance to the northwest market, and various promotional and sales plans targeting the market are currently being carried out intensively.
It is understood that under the “HowToTrip Model,” property owners can use their own homes at any time while also enjoying HowToTrip’s professional services. For example, if an owner has a property in Xi’an but wants to travel to Sanya, they can freely choose any HowToTrip property in Sanya and stay there for free. This “privilege” is clearly quite attractive to investor-travelers. Ms. Li, a travel enthusiast and a loyal follower of HowToTrip as an investor, told reporters: “HowToTrip’s comprehensive property management services and stable returns are extremely worry-free for me. The biggest gain from cooperating with HowToTrip is the ability to feel at home in the cities I want to visit.”
In just two years of market exploration, HowToTrip has signed contracts for properties in nearly 142 major domestic cities and 66 overseas cities. Property owners have also undergone a shift in attitude from skepticism to acceptance. In terms of actual sales, HowToTrip’s vacation apartment products sold online via Ctrip have achieved excellent performance and user feedback, with average user ratings of over 4.5—surpassing some five-star hotels. In early 2014, Ctrip officially launched the HowToTrip channel, indicating that the strategic cooperation between these two travel service providers has entered a closer phase.
According to Mr. Ding Songshan, General Manager of HowToTrip’s Shaanxi Regional Company, the company is actively working to establish a tourism economic promotion strategic partnership with the Shaanxi Provincial Government. Based in Shaanxi, it is also making efforts to expand into business districts and tourist destinations such as Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai.