Chairman Chen Feng addresses the WTTC audience

HNA Group chairman Chen Feng has given a keynote speech at the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit, held in Madrid.

The 15th Global Summit was sponsored by Platinum sponsor NH Hotel Group, a subsidiary of HNA Group and the third largest hotel group in Europe.

WTTC chose ‘Overturn and Reshape’ as the theme of the event.

The king of Spain invited key members of the WTTC for dinner on April 17th, including Chen Feng, the sole entrepreneur from China invited to the evening event.

On April 15th, Feng indicated in his speech that China’s rapid economic development has boosted the fast growth of the tourism sector.

In 2014, border crossings into and out of China numbered 110 million and the figure is expected to surpass the 500 million mark over the next five years.

Taking into consideration the ‘One Belt, One Road’ strategy being rolled out by Chinese leaders, China is seeing huge tourism cooperation opportunities with Europe.

These changes call for innovative players willing to take the initiative and China will work closely with Europe to take full advantage of the opportunities.

Much in line with this year’s ‘Overturn and Reshape’ theme, the appearance of HNA Tourism Group at the summit in Madrid provided an opportunity for the Chinese tourism group to demonstrate its innovative international development model to the world.

Established in 2007, HNA Tourism’s operations now extend to hotels, aviation, tourism, finance, IT and internet services.

With quality brands such as Capital Airlines, Deer Jet, Caissa Touristic, Tangla Hotels, NH Hotel Group, HNA Cruises and Transforex Currency Exchange, among others, HNA Tourism ranks sixth among all China-based tourism groups.

Some of these business have already become industry leaders.

Deer Jet, which owns a fleet of 84 planes and with an operations network extending to major economic areas of the world, recently took the title of Asia’s Leading Private Jet Charter at the World Travel Awards.

At the same time, HNA Tourism’s corporate philosophy, focused on healthy and sustainable development, innovative business models and growing reach in international markets, was a major factor leading to the group being selected Asia’s Leading Travel Management Company at the World Travel Awards.

In recent years, HNA Tourism has embarked on a globalisation strategy and improved its global competitiveness through a series of international mergers and acquisitions.

The group completed the equity acquisitions of Caissa Touristic and the Spanish NH Hotel Group, further complementing its international business layout.

Its subsidiary, Capital Airlines, with a focus on becoming the top brand of air tour in China, is aggressively developing Asian and North American markets.

Caissa Touristic is vigorously expanding into overseas markets and taking a leading position in China’s outbound tourism market by combining airline travel with other components of tourism.

HNA has 469 hotels in 170 cities across nearly 30 countries worldwide, with NH Hotel Group and Tangla Hotels as the two core brands.