Louis Mele July 21st, 2014 Travel & Tourism Capstone Project Prof. Fairbairn
Section 1
Chengdu, is the provincial capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China, as well as a major city in Western China. It has 14,047,625 inhabitants: 7,123,697 within the municipality's nine urban districts and 6,730,749 in the surrounding suburbs and rural area. According to the 2010 census, Chengdu is the fourth most populous city in mainland China, and most populous among prefecture-level cities as well.
Chengdu is one of the most important economic, transportation, and communication centers in Western China. According to the 2007 Public Appraisal for Best Chinese Cities for Investment, Chengdu was chosen as one of the top ten cities to invest in out of a total of 280 urban centers in China.
Tourism of Chengdu mainly promotes four travel brands-the hometown of the giant panda, the capital of delicious food, the capital of leisure culture and the exhibition city. First, the Qingcheng Mountain and Dujiangyan, The Wuhou Temple, DuFu Thatched Cottage, Jinsha Ruins and the habitat of giant panda, represent the world heritage brand. Second, the Sichuan cuisine, six famous brands of alcohol, Sichuan tea culture represent the capital of delicious food. Third, the Huan Alley and Zhai Alley, Jinli roads and historical remains of city in Qing dynasty represent the capital of leisure culture. Fourth, the Chengdu International Intangible cultural heritage Festival, the China International Gourmet and tourism Festival, the Taoist Cultural Festival and other Taoist Cultural Festival and other events create the exhibition city.
Perhaps the newest and best tourist attraction is the largest man-made structure in the world called new Century Global Centre which opened in June 2013. New Century Global Centre is a multipurpose building in the Tianfu New Area of Chengdu, China. It is so big that it’s got its own artificial sun. It is 500 meters (1,640 feet) long, 400 meters (1,310 feet) wide and 100 meters (325 feet) high, it’s massive enough to hold three Pentagons, according to local Chinese authorities. It was developed by billionaire Deng Hong's Entertainment and Travel Group (ETG), nearly 400,000 square meters (4,300,000 sq ft) of the building is devoted to shopping. It also houses offices, conference rooms, a university complex, two commercial centres, hotels, an IMAX cinema, a "Mediterranean village", a pirate ship and skating rink. The centerpiece of the building is a 5,000 m2 (54,000 sq ft) artificial beach, where a giant 150 by 40 m (490 by 130 ft) screen forms the horizon to offer sunrises and sunsets. At night, a stage extends out over the pool for concerts. A stand has been built overlooking the pool with a food court and entrance underneath at the floor level. The new Intercontinental Hotel features 1,009 rooms that are spread over 6 x 8 story blocks around the edge of the complex. The centre is connected to Line 1 of the Chengdu Metro.

| | | | | | GUEST | | MEETING | | | NAME | | | | ROOMS | | ROOMS | | | | | | | | | | HOLIDAY INN CHENGDU CENTURY | | | 1,500 | | 28 | CROWNE PLAZA CHENGDU | | | 402 | | 14 | SHANGRI LA HOTEL CHENGDU | | | 593 | | 21 | MILLENNIUM HOTEL CHENGDU | | | 360 | | 11 | INTERCONTINENTAL CHENGDU CENTU | | 555 | | 28 | HOLIDAY INN CHENGDU XINDU | | | 322 | | 7 | CROWNE PLAZA CHENGDU CITY CENTER | | 402 | | 6 | SHERATON CHENGDU LIDO HOTEL | | | 387 | | 8 | INTERCONTINENTAL CHENGDU GLOBAL CENTER | 990 | | 4 | HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS CHENGDU GULOU | | 280 | | 3 | HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS CHENGDU ORIENTAL PLAZA | 336 | | 4 | CROWNE PLAZA CHENGDU WEST | | | 347 | | 4 | HOWARD JOHNSON CONFERENCE RESORT | | 500 | | 8 | THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL CHENGDU | | 353 | | 7 | WYNDHAM GRAND PLAZA ROYALE PALACE | | 420 | | 17 | GARDEN CITY HOTEL CHENGDU | | | 262 | | 12 | CHENGDU YADU HOTEL | | | | 114 | | 4 | SHANGRI -LA HOTEL | | | | 593 | | 17 | RHOMBUS CHENGDU | | | | 185 | | 7 | Chengdu International Exhibition and Convention Center (CIECC) 2 |

Section 2
Culture is the soul of travel. China, an ancient oriental giant with a history of over 5,000 years bears a special cultural magnetism for worldwide tourists.
Chengdu is a historical and cultural city, and one of Chinas best tourist cities. Altogether, Chengdu has 12 five-star hotels, 29 four-star hotels and 3000 hotels. This city has 10 billion sealed travel agencies and 18,000 accredited tourist guides. Transportation continues to improve over the last few years as Chengdu has high-speed railways, Shanghai-Chengdu expressway has been opened and 18 international routes were opened in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, with volume over 25,8 million people. In 2012, United Airlines began non-stop service from San Francisco International Airport.
Chengdu is a destination for an experienced, worldly traveler with a desire to experience Chinese culture and history. With the addition of the new Century Global Centre, Chengdu now appeals to families as well. It is also a popular destination for business travelers as many large corporations have established offices in Chengdu. For example, Apples iPad production plant is located here.

Workers on a Chengdu assembly line.

Section 3
Chengdu is deepening the city's reform in an all-round way and laid out its plan for economic and social reform in February 2014.
The government came up with an overall strategy of reform, innovation, transformation and upgrading, and optimized its five strategies to boost the city's prosperity. The city is working to build itself into an economic growth engine in western China and establish itself as a modern metropolis, local Chengdu officials have stated. To implement the overall strategy, Chengdu will continue transformation and upgrades in city space, industries, ecology, urban management and urban and rural management. The city is also striving to make improvements in resources, social government, industrial upgrades, integration of urban and rural development and opening up to the world.
The five strategies they will focus on is improving the transportation system, upgrading the industrial structure, bettering city infrastructure, balancing urban and rural development and opening up to the world in an all-round way. To improve its transportation system, Chengdu will work to transform itself from a domestic transportation hub into an international regional transportation hub. The city will provide policy support for industrial upgrades and encourage further development of private sectors of the economy. Chengdu will improve its living environment, advance the infrastructure of eight satellite towns, and upgrade the urban layout of municipal areas. To balance its urban and rural development, the city will strive to promote the integration of urban and rural planning, industrial development, infrastructure construction, public service and social management. The city will open its industries, market and cooperation to the outside world. It will strive to attract an increasing number of Fortune Global 500 companies, renowned transnational corporations and leading enterprises. Currently, more than 200 Fortune 500 companies have a presence in the city.
Chengdu has positive geographic conditions and the necessary infrastructure to make itself the logistic hub in the central and western part of China. It has desirable policies from the government who is trying to boost the logistics industry in the city, in fact, many logistic enterprises already have their operation in Chengdu. Chengdu’s good logistics infrastructure, strong scientific and technological research capacity, rich talent pool and the advanced communications technology and information resources have made it easy for the development of logistic companies. Currently, logistics companies such as the Prologis, Richland Group, Fraser and Neave Group have invested in several projects with investment totals over 100 million. DHL also has a distribution center at the Chengdu Logistics Park.
And there’s more to Chengdu than just good business. Besides the existing new Century Global Center, in the future, leisure travels can visit in the Chengdu Contemporary Arts Theater that is being designed by award –winning Briish-Iraqui architcet Zaha Hadid. It will be built directly across from the New Century Global Center.
Transportation in Chengdu continues to improve. Chengdu Airport (Shuangliu International Airport) is in the southwest of the city. It is the largest aviation hub in central and western China and in the future hopes to be the national aviation hub in mainland China. It has flights to more than 70 domestic cities and over 20 international cities.
Chengdu has the largest, most convenient railway hub in southwest China. It currently has two railway stations with another two railway stations under construction. Chengdu has several main coach bus stations and two subway lines currently open with 8 more lines currently under construction.
United Airlines launched a non-stop service between Chengdu and San Francisco June 9th, 2014. This is the first non-stop service to the United States from central and western China, and comes as a result of the US airline seeking to cash in on booming tourism between China and the United States. Around 1.8 million Chinese tourists visited the United States in 2013 and the number is expected to reach three million in 2016, according to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. They also stated that more than 220,000 US citizens traveled to Sichuan last year. Before the non-stop service was launched, passengers traveling to the United States from Chengdu had to transfer in other cities. A one way trip took around 20 hours. United Airlines has an interest in the continued economic growth of Chengdu and promoting inbound tourism as it continues to fill the seats on their Boeing 787 Dreamliner Aircraft. Diashttp://en.ce.cn/Industries/Aerospare/201406/12/t20140612_2964828.shtml

Here is a recent tweet from United Airlines as they promote the San Francisco to Chengdu Service: #SFO2CTU
“We’re excited that United Airlines chose SFO to launch the first ever nonstop service from the United States to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Chengdu is the fourth largest city in China, home to the Giant Panda, and the home-away-from-home for many Fortune 500 companies who have set up shop in this area of China.

http://beijing.usembassy.gov/facilities_. Lists 12 hospitals in Chengdu. Even though the Chengdu city government continuously strives to improve its health care system, and was named in 2012 as the "capacity-building year" for public hospitals, the US embassy still encourages all Americans traveling to China to buy foreign medical care and medical evacuation insurance prior to arrival.

Sections 4
Chengdu is one of the historic cities in China as well as the hometown of giant pandas. It has a long history of 2300 years, and enjoys the title of "the land of abundance". Nowadays, Chengdu has become a tourist city that is rich with culture.
Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is located 20km (12 mi) outside of Chengdu city centre and is one of the main air hubs in China, recently ranked 4th in passenger volume. It serves flights to/from most major cities in China, many smaller cities within Sichuan, and some international destinations including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Kathmandu, London, Mumbai, Osaka, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo.
Train connections are available to most cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming in Yunnan, Chongqing and Xi'an.
There are many tour packages available for example:
3 day Tour- $259 Includes * Airport pick-up and return * A visit to the Panda Zoo * Free time to explore the city at your own pace * Advice freely available by a private guide

5 day tour- $699
Includes
* Airport Pick-up and return * Visit to Jinsha sire Museum where you can view a 4-D film named “Dream back to Jinsha”. * Visit to Dujiangyan Irrigation Project of china which is the worlld’s oldest preserved irrigation project that is still in use. * Includes daily breakfast buffet * Advice freely available by a private guide
PLACES TO EAT
There are a number of stalls and hole in the wall type places all over town. Food here is dirt cheap, expect to pay no more than $1.30 USD for a meal, and the quality is good. Things to be on the lookout for are spicy bowls of breakfast noodles, double cooked pork and dozens of dishes coated in "málà" the Sichuan chili spice famous the world over. * Yulinchuanchuanxiang Various locations throughout the city. Cheap and fast hotpot variety. This is a help-yourself style meal, go to a backroom and choose your own kabobs. Stick the kabobs into a hotpot soup, and have them boil. Pull them out and enjoy. Large kabobs for $1.00. Expect to be full for less than $5.00 * Lanzhou Lamian Located everywhere. A bowl of noodles starts for about .less than $1.00 and reach a maximum of $2.50. Varieties include egg, lamb and beef. Other dishes are reasonable in price as well. * Steamed buns Sold for breakfast or lunch from street vendors throughout the city. Yacai bao (is a local Sichuan special variety you are unlikely to find elsewhere and typically contains some mixture of Yacai a type of preserved vegetable, and potentially some meat. Three buns cost around $.65

* Lan Zhou Niu Rou La Mian, Donghuamen Street. For particularily great Uigur noodles (pulled and shaved noodles), head to "Lan Zhou Niu Rou La Mian", a family-run little restaurant on Donghuamen Street. Find it in the little section between Renmin E Road and Donghua Main St, all of which is north-east of and only a couple minutes' walk from Tianfu Square (where the metro lines intersect). (30.659547,104.068940) Expect to pay less than $8.00 for a meal. * Mike's Pizza Kitchen (Chengdu Pizza Delivery), Tongzilin, Europe City Freshly made to order pizza. Authentic New York style pizza pie, stone-baked. Prices range from $5.00 - $25.00 * Wenshu Temple Vegetarian Restaurant 15 Wenshu St 693-870. In the grounds of a monastery and run by monks. Offers a huge selection of traditional vegetarian dishes, including some containing imitated meat. Prices range from $5.00-$20.00 * Hokkaido Japanese Restaurant Various locations throughout the city Authentic Japanese food. Serves Chinese and Japanese beers, as well as a selection of plum wine and sake. Food quality varies. Meals range from $4.00 upwards, expect a plate of sushi to be quite a bit more expensive, but sides are generally decent priced. * Chen Mapo 208 Shuanglin Rd Supposedly opened by the Mapo herself in 1862. The place to eat Mapo Doufu, it does not get any more authentic than this. Spicy food eaters will love this, those who do not like spicy food should probably skip it altogether. Prices range from $10.00-$40.00 * Namaste/Afila 20 Remin Nan Rd, Section 4, Wuhou District Specializes in Indian and Nepalese cuisine, particularly tandoori and curries. Great for vegetarians and omnivores alike. Price range $10.00-$40.00
Most popular Hotels Daily Rate
YiKai Taizhi Hotel- $143-606
Haiyatt Hotel Chengdu- $107-145
Home Inn Topstar - $120-205
Chendgu Yadu Hotel - $140-220
Sichuan West Wing Hotel- $55-150
Minshan Hotel - $107-151
Fraser Suites Chengdu- $122
Shangri-la Hotel- $152
Section 5
Chengdu is the world’s hub for the Giant panda. The endangered species Giant Pandas are human's friends and for anyone who is eager to see, hug and even volunteer to help the bears, Chengdu, is the best choice. Chengdu Panda Base is located no more than 6 miles north of Chengdu on the Futou Mountain. You could, take a taxi 30 minute taxi from downtown Chengdu. With Chengdu being such a huge base for the pandas I believe that setting up an event would help attract explorers, tourists, animal-lovers as well as scientists. Currently, Chengdu has a Panda “petting zoo” type of attraction. I would expand on this and have an event that be a National Chengdu Panda Day and since the rainy season is usually in July and August, it would be celebrated in June when the temperature is a comfortable 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit. It would be a panda theme day where tourist and natives alike can learn more about the panda and have a great time doing so. There would be a street fair type event where people can buy panda themed items. Famous Sichuan cuisine could be purchased from street vendors. The main event that would take place after dark is a firework display with the Symphony of Lights show similar to the Chinese New Year celebration. This event would bring in revenue for the city and attract even more tourists to visit.

Section 6
Operating budget for management of Chengdu

Operating budget for the management of Chengdu | Expenses | Advertising | $ 100,000 | On-line Marketing | $ 40,000 | Email Marketing | $ 5,000 | Email Marketing | $ 2,500 | Tracking and reporting | $ 7,500 | Mail Program Direct Marketing | $ 20,000 | Brochures and distribution of brochures | $ 15,000 | Trade show organization | $ 25,000 | Tradeshow registration fees | $ 45,000 | Website/Internet | $ 45,000 | Web server Maintenance | $ 8,000 | Updates/Enhancements | $ 4,000 | Public Relations | $ 7,000 | Membership Service – Marketing Plan | $ 100,000 | Research | $ 6,500 | Video/ Photography | $ 15,000 | Promotional Items | $ 6,200 | Funds from government | $ 30,000,000 | Portion of room tax | 9% | | Annual revenue | Tourism Revenue | $22,000,000,000 | Hotel & food Services revenue | $2,000,000,000 | Total Import Revenue | $11,000,000,000 | Total Import Revenue from USA | $3,000,000,000 | Total Export Revenue | $14,000,000,000 | Total Export Revenue from USA | $ 2,000,000,000 | Total automobile production revenue | $16,000,000,000 |

Section 7
Chengdu Revenue | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 ( projected) | Tourists | 138 million | 155 million | 186 million | Tourism Revenue | 18 billion | 22 billion | 27.4 billion |

* Global events helped boost Chengdu tourism. In Sept 2013, Chengdu hosted the PATA Travel Mart, a top trade fair in the Asia Pacific Region. * The second Chengdu International Travel fair in December 2013 brought 200 exhibitors from 37 countries and regions. * According to a recent Forbes list, Chengdu ranked #11 among the 30 most developed tourism cities on the Chinese mainland. * A report released by the China Tourism Academy ranked Chengdu 3rd in terms of tourist satisfaction.
I project that inbound tourism will continue to grow due to: 1. The 2014 addition of United Airlines non-stop service from the US (San Francisco) to Chengdu. This will also increase import and export revenue from the US as cargo can travel nonstop from the US on United Airlines Flights. 2. Added tourist’s attractions such as the Contemporary Arts Centre which is currently being developed. 3. The 3rd Chengdu International Travel Fair in November 2014 will open to both trade and public visitors and is expected to draw 25% more visitors than 2013’s Travel fair.