ITB China 2025 Breaks Records With 35% Attendee Surge and Over 38,800 Business Meetings

Attendee Numbers Soar at ITB China 2025

ITB China 2025 concluded successfully, marking a significant milestone for the event. This year, there was a 30% increase in net exhibition space compared to 2024, and the event welcomed over 700 exhibitors from 85 countries. More than 20,500 attendees participated, including 1,400 high-quality buyers and approximately 280 media representatives. This turnout highlights the increasing demand and global interest in China’s travel market, representing a 35% year-over-year increase in attendance.

Additionally, the event facilitated over 38,800 valuable business meetings, setting a new standard for industry engagement. During the ITB China Conference, 150 prominent speakers shared insights on 60 diverse topics, fostering innovation and promoting global collaboration within the tourism industry.

ITB China 2025 set new records in both scale and innovation, marking a significant moment for international engagement with China’s travel industry. The three-day event attracted an unprecedented number of exhibitors and participants, delivered impactful content, and created valuable business opportunities, clearly reflecting the market’s renewed dynamism. Leading figures from across the travel sector presented their latest offerings and solutions, demonstrating a strong collective commitment to unlocking growth in China’s dynamic travel market.

David Axiotis, Managing Director, Messe Berlin China, reflects: “ITB China 2025 stands as a landmark success – uniting a record-breaking international presence with cutting-edge insights that are shaping the future of travel. From the resurgence of Chinese cross-border tourism to the rise of smart, themed, and personalized travel, this year’s show not only reflected the market momentum, but clearly accelerated it. By fostering global collaboration, spotlighting innovation, and amplifying the voice of China’s travel industry, we are actively shaping the travel landscape of tomorrow.”

C-Talks: Top-Level Gathering of Travel Industry Leaders

The impactful C-Talks event brought together over 30 senior executives from China’s leading outbound travel companies, alongside high-ranking officials from national tourism boards and ministries from around the world. The discussions focused on how key industry players in China can collaborate more effectively with international destinations to promote resilient and sustainable growth in today’s complex global landscape. This highly successful gathering showcases ITB China’s ability to unite influential figures from both the Chinese market and the global travel industry.

This year’s show welcomed an all-time high of 1,400 carefully selected buyers from China and around the world. For the first time in the event’s history, there were representatives from all provincial-level regions of China, along with inbound buyers from 19 countries, including Germany, Italy, the UK, France, and the US. Throughout the three-day event, buyers participated in over 38,800 meetings with more than 700 exhibitors, fostering valuable partnerships and new collaborations. The positive feedback from attendees reinforces ITB China’s position as the premier travel event in the country.

Norhayati Zainuddin, Deputy Director / Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, this year’s Partner Destination, emphasized: “Since we brought a larger delegation from Malaysia this year, the feedback from our Malaysia sales staff has been very positive. As they have met many buyers during the business meetings, not only from China but also from other countries, they were able to close more deals. They were happy with this year’s participation and hope to participate again at next year’s ITB China.”

Aileen Chan, Expedia Group’s Vice President, Private Label Solutions, APAC, shared: “We are seeing surging demand from different travel segments in the China travel market. Based on our recent research, 87% of Chinese travellers said they will travel internationally – this percentage is way higher than the global average of about 68%. Around 65% of Chinese travelers say they are likely to increase their travel budget, which is something we are really excited about.”

An official from the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism stated: “ITB China is a vital platform for boosting international tourism cooperation. The Hubei delegation, made up of eight cities and over 60 key companies, introduced two premium travel routes and highlighted cultural and tech experiences like intangible heritage displays and tea tasting. They held more than 200 business meetings with buyers from around the world, seeing strong results. Hubei is working to become a world-renowned cultural tourism destination and looks forward to expanding global partnerships.”

Li Zhuyuan, Executive President and Secretary-General of MICE Committee of China Association of Travel Services, said: “China’s MICE market is huge and is an industry that can create higher added value. The development of AI technology poses challenges to offline manual operations, but it is also an inevitable trend. We should embrace the arrival of new technologies and let it create higher value for the MICE industry.”

Kim Daeyong, Legal representative of China Regional Corporation of Modetour Network, said: “China’s visa-free policy has had a significant impact on Korean tourists traveling to China. For our company, business in the first half of this year increased by more than 20% compared to last year. We met many Chinese partners at ITB China this time, and they were all very enthusiastic, which will be very helpful for us in developing new Chinese tourism products in the future.”

Huang Jingru, Vice President of GZL INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL SERVICE LTD., commented: “This year, there were many tourism boards, promotion organizations, and resource persons and partners from countries with niche destinations. It was a great pleasure for us to meet so many suppliers of emerging destinations all at once at one show.”

ITB China Conference Equipped Travel Professionals with Essential Insights into China’s Travel Market

The ITB China Conference, recognized as China’s premier industry think tank, brought together over 150 top-tier speakers from leading global tourism boards, travel enterprises, airlines, hotel groups, and technology providers. The conference featured more than 60 thought-provoking sessions that provided strategic insights into the industry and highlighted emerging trends through high-level discussions. Key themes included outbound and inbound travel from China, hotel and hospitality trends, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) and business travel, themed and customized travel, and innovations in travel technology. These topics were explored through a dynamic mix of keynote speeches, industry dialogues, executive interviews, and panel discussions, fostering enriching exchanges about the future of the travel industry.