First complete study on Chinese tourism in Spain

From http://comunicatur.info/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1819&Itemid=37 (in Catalan)

Despite the fact that Chinese tourism is relatively recent, during the recent years the awesome economic growth figures have brought the attention of many agents and professionals of the touristic sector, in order to start approaching themselves to this emerging market. Forecasts say that during the next decade one out of two tourists that are supposed to visit Europe will come from Asia, specially from China . When the average expense on their trips abroad is also taken into account (between 1,500 and 3,000€ per person and trip), the reasons why this is a priority market for the future are pretty evident. Because of this, in July 2011, the Spanish Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Miguel Sebastián, publicly announced the "Plan Turismo China", where the strategy of Spanish government to attract Chinese tourists was disclosed. The study on Chinese tourism in Spain has been authored by Daniel Tomás Gaimundiz, who has had the support of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI). The report contains many statistical data on arrivals, distribution and origin of the Chinese touristic flows, as well as on the profile of the average tourist and his/her expenses.

Chinese tourism offers also a great opportunity for Catalonia, since it is their favorite region in Spain to visit. According to estimations, in 2010 47% of the tourists that visited Spain had at least gone through Catalonia, thanks to the attraction of the city of Barcelona and to the vicinity to countries like France and Italy.

The 118-page document written in Spanish can be downloaded as pdf file from the Comunicatur website at http://comunicatur.info/cms/images/stories/documents/turismochinoespana.pdf.

[caption id="attachment_1141" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chinese tourists visiting the Santa Clotilde Gardens, Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava"][/caption]

Catalan workshop on the development of Chinese tour operators

From http://workshops.catalunya.com/wsxina2011 (in Catalan)

The Catalan Tourism Agency has recently organized a workshop aimed at Chinese tour operators in order to bring tourists to Catalonia. The event has been designed to promote holiday and cultural packages and has been hosted by Casa Àsia in Barcelona.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="Catalan workshop on Chinese tour operators (Image from workshop website)"][/caption]

FC Barcelona closes deal with Chinese internet provider Tencent

From http://www.fcbarcelona.com/club/detail/article/barca-closes-deal-with-chinese-internet-giant-tencent (in English)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="384" caption="FC Barcelona closes deal with Tencent (Image from FC Barcelona website)"][/caption]

A delegation from FC Barcelona has recently visited China in order to sign a deal with Tencent, the main internet service provider of the Asian country. This deal is expected to allow FC Barcelona a massive audience in China and also to generate new financial resources for the Catalan football club. The Director of the Technology Area (New Technologies) of FC Barcelona, Dídac Lee, from Taiwanese origin, has declared to be very satisfied with this agreement, both because of his cultural origins and because it is also related with his field of work and expertise. Tencent will develop FC Barcelona's new Chinese website and will also commercialize applications and mobile games using the FC Barcelona brand.

FC Barcelona is already the leader among Spanish football clubs on social networks, with nearly 23 million fans on Facebook and 4.5 million followers on Twitter (accounts in Catalan, Spanish and English) and its website is the most visited Spanish football site with over 100 million visits per year. The deal with Tencent is expected to consolidate this position, thanks to the 900 million users of QQ, 500 million users of Qzone and 130 million users of Pengyou, their main several social media sites. FC Barcelona will also open a verified account on Tencent Weibo, known as the Chinese Twitter, which has some 300 million users.

Seven Catalan companies have attended Shanghai's Food & Hotel China 2011

From http://www.icex.es/icex/cda/controller/pageICEX/0,6558,5518394_5519005_6366453_4533228,00.html (in Spanish)

Seven Catalan companies have traveled to Shanghai to attend the Food & Hotel China 2011 trade fair. Together with other 56 Spanish companies, they have showcased their products at the Spain's Official Pavillion, under the wing of the Spanish Agriculture and Food Plan in China (Plan Agroalimentario en China), Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) and the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office in Shanghai (Oficina Económica y Comercial de España en Shanghai). Food & Hotel China trade fair is a great opportunity for foreign products to enter the Chinese market, due to the growing interest by the Chinese consumers and their new trend in seeking high quality food products.

Catalan glasses manufacturer Etnia Barcelona sets joint venture in China

From http://www.expansion.com/2011/11/20/catalunya/1321823146.html (in Spanish)

Etnia Barcelona, a Catalan company specialized in manufacturing glasses, has invested 400,000 euros in a new production plant in Shenzhen and has created a joint venture in China with the Hong Kong based company Future Visionaries. Each of the two companies will hold half of the shares of the new one, which is expected to produce up to 800,000 units per year and increase sales up to 35 million € by 2014. Etnia Barcelona, based in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona province), has 195 employees and exports account for 87% of its sales.

Conference in Barcelona about China's financial sector and the global crisis

From http://www.casaasia.es/media/asset_publics/resources/000/019/559/original/Invitaci_n_22.11.11_-_castellano.pdf (in Spanish)

Xinghai Fang, director of the Office for Financial Services of Shanghai Metropolitan Government, is announced to give a conference in Barcelona on Tuesday November 22nd, 2011. The title of the talk is "China’s financial sector and the global crisis. Challenges and opportunities" and it will take place at 12 pm at the Círculo Ecuestre, at 169 bis Balmes Street. Xinghai Fang will be introduced by Juan María Nin (Executive Vice President and Chief Executive of CaixaBank). The event will also have the participation of Borja García-Nieto, president of Círculo Ecuestre, and Pablo García-Berdoy, general secretary of Aspen Institute España. For additional information, please call at +34 93 415 60 00. Simultaneous translation will be provided.

Chinese company Sunfor Light settles in Catalonia

From http://www.globalasia.com/actualidad/la-empresa-china-sunfor-light-se-instala-en-cataluna (in Spanish)

Chinese company Sunfor Light has chosen Catalonia as home for its distribution center aimed at serving the European and Latin American markets. Sunfor Light has settled in Llinars del Vallès (Barcelona), where 70 new jobs have already been created. The company has also announced an investment of 4 million € for the next 4 years, whereas the sales are expected to reach 3 million € by 2012. Sunfor Light is based in Chengdu, the capital of the province of Sichuan, and has some 300 employees that have developed some hundred patents based on the LED technology.