Life in China From Friendship first to Business first in Chinese tourism | From Friendship first to Business first in Chinese tourism |
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| China | |
| Saturday, 16 January 2010 | |
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The Meridian Society/BBCN will be hosting a forum on Friday 22nd January, 2010 in association with the CSSA of The School of Oriental and African Studies. The lectures will be delivered by Mr Neil Taylor and Ms Elizabeth Morrell. From Friendship first to Business first in Chinese tourism – the experiences and views of two tour operators in China
Neil and Elizabeth will talk about their experiences of travelling and then organising and leading tours to China over the past 4 decades. Their first decade of study and contact with China – the 1970s - was still a period when China was largely uncharted territory for foreign tourists, and tours were focused on visiting revolutionary sites and aspects of socialist construction in selective places. Neil will cover the earlier period as China gradually opened up to tourism on a broader basis than ‘friendship tours’ organised exclusively by the ChinaInternational Travel Service, while Elizabeth will continue the story as China became commercially-orientated in the 1980s and tourism became a professional and competitive business, run by more and more private companies in China. They will assess the development in recent years when tourism has expanded to (and some might say spoilt) every corner of China.
Neil Taylor: An early member of SACU (Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding), studied Chinese first at the Polytechnic of Central London and then King's, Cambridge. First trip to China with SACU in 1971. Set up Regent’s Tours in 1975 and took the first group in autumn 1976.
Elizabeth studied Chinese at Edinburgh University and then spent a year in China on a British Council student exchange scheme. One of the founding directors of Voyages Jules Verne, specialists in China by the early 1980s and pioneers of commercial tourism. Now acts as a consultant on China to various tour operators and also receives delegations and visitors from China.
Note: These talks will be in English |
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