China Travel Trade Show Guide 2024-2025

COTTM in Beijing will return to its traditional April scheduling in 2025 (Pictured: COTTM 2024)

Industry research conducted by Dragon Trail in 2024 shows that attending a travel trade show is one of the most valuable sources of information for Chinese travel agents working with overseas travel destinations or suppliers, chosen by more than half of Chinese travel trade professionals (Chinese Outbound Travel Trade Survey, July 2024).

The travel trade event calendar in China has changed since the pandemic, however, with some events no longer held, and others changing their dates from year to year. To help potential exhibitors and visitors from overseas plan ahead for Chinese travel trade marketing in 2025, we’ve compiled this guide to confirmed events.

22-24 November 2024 | Shanghai

China International Travel Mart (CITM)
China’s most established travel exhibition, running since 1998, and organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT). It is held on alternate years in Shanghai and Kunming (the 2024 event will be in Shanghai). The show is focused on inbound and domestic tourism rather than outbound travel, but it does bring in buyers from all of China’s major travel agencies, and maintaining good relations with the MCT is important for both the national tourism boards and for multinational companies. For one day only, the exhibition is dedicated to trade. The rest of the exhibition time is open to the general public.

22-24 March 2025 | Shanghai

Incentive Travel & Conventions Meetings China (IT&CM China)
Organized by media company TTG Asia in Shanghai, this is China’s only double-bill event for MICE and corporate travel, including inbound, outbound and domestic travel. Exhibitors are mainly hotel chains, airlines, and destinations appealing to corporate travel buyers. The exhibition offers a sophisticated matchmaking program and pre-scheduled appointment system to make it easier for attendees to efficiently organize their time. IT&CM and CTW was held as a virtual event in 2020 and 2021, with a hybrid edition in 2023. Since 2024, it has returned to a fully in-person format.

24-26 April 2025 | Beijing

China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM)
Running for two decades, COTTM is one of the most important travel industry events of the year in China and remains the only business to business event that focuses purely on the outbound market. Organized by Informa, a UK company, this exhibition and conference benefits from the experience and professionalism of a European event management company. It has been held at the Agricultural Exhibition Center near the embassy district in east Beijing since 2004, making it the most established and best-organized B2B travel trade show in China, particularly for the north China market. After several years of being held in the autumn, COTTM returns to its traditional April schedule in 2025.

15-17 May 2025 | Guangzhou

Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF)
Held since 1993, GITF is China’s longest-running cultural and tourism fair. The fair regularly attracts more than 30,000 professional visitors and buyers, and more than 100 media. GITF is a particularly important trading platform in South China, and a good way of tapping into the mature and vibrant Guangdong market.

27-29 May 2025 | Shanghai

ITB China
This three-day B2B travel conference and exhibition is one of the best, and most professional events in China. The exhibition is organized in partnership with TravelDaily China and includes business and leisure travel, as well as travel technology. It attracts buyers from travel agencies all around China, but is best for targeting Shanghai and its surrounding cities, including Hangzhou and Nanjing.

June 2025 | Beijing

Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE)
Organized by the Beijing Municipal Tourism Board since 2004. This consumer-focused show attracts a few foreign NTOs, mostly from Asia, though the domestic travel market takes the bulk of the space. Most of the visitors tend to be consumers as it takes place just before the summer school holidays, when travel agents are at their busiest. The exact dates for 2025 have not been announced as of November 2024, but the event always takes place in June.

Year-Round Events | Throughout China

Universal Tourism Exhibition (UTE)
Run as a road show, with around 30 separate events in different Chinese cities throughout the year, this is a busy event focused on one-to-one meetings with Chinese travel agents. 14 events have been scheduled already for 4 March-15 May 2025, including all the major first-tier and new first-tier markets. Exhibitors are 85% overseas inbound tourism agencies, who can sell packages directly to Chinese buyers. Having a Chinese speaker may be essential for this kind of event.

China Outbound Travel Exchange Market (COME)
Similar to UTE, COME is a series of events, held all over China. There were 20 events held in 2024, with four each month from March-November, and two in December. The 2025 schedule has not been announced yet as of November 2024. Exhibitors are overseas agencies, hotels, cruise lines, DMCs, transport, and study tour companies, and visitors are Chinese travel agents.

Cancellations

Not all travel industry events have returned to China post-COVID. In case you’re looking for the following, we can confirm that they have not announced any forthcoming dates, and no longer have official websites.

Shanghai World Travel Fair: This event, focusing on outbound travel for both trade and consumers, was held up until 2021 but has not returned since.

ILTM China: This fair focused on the Chinese luxury market was held in Shanghai in 2018 and 2019, but has not returned since the pandemic.

CIBTM: Once a rival to IT&CM for the business travel market, this China-focused event is no longer being organized, although IBTM World is still held annually in Barcelona.

Need support with exhibiting at, attending, or organizing Chinese travel trade events in 2025? Dragon Trail offers market representation services alongside our full suite of B2B travel trade marketing solutions. Please get in touch to discuss how we can help.