Huaqiao has sped up efforts to develop its business travel industry as a driving force for other local businesses, including the food and hospitality industry, service sector and infrastructure sector, to further improve local employment as well as city image.

Business travel is a high value-added tourism product with customized services involving leisure activities relating to businesses. Compared with regular tourism, business travelers are less cost-sensitive and are not influenced by climate and seasonal trends. Their consumption will promote regional economic development and increase local fiscal revenue and employment.

In 2012, the tourism sector in Kunshan accounted for 17.5 percent of the local service industry, with more than half of revenues coming from business tourism.

As an economic business cluster focused on the modern service sector, Huaqiao International Business Service Park has high potential growth in business tourism with obvious advantages in location, industry and environment.

Competitive advantages

Huaqiao International Business Service Park is located in China's developed Yangtze River Delta, close to Shanghai’s Jiading and Qingpu districts and only a 20-minute drive from Hongqiao hub. The business service park has a very complete transportation network thanks to the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway, Tong San Expressway, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, Shanghai-Nanjing suburban railway, 312 state road and Shanghai Subway Line 11. It can meet all kinds of transport needs for group travelers and individual tours.

Huaqiao began to develop modern services as its main driving force in 2006. The economic park has introduced more than 650 modern service projects, with a total investment of over 60 billion yuan ($9.7 billion).

Huaqiao has various platforms for business activities, including high-end convention and exhibition centers, five-star hotels, specialized hotels featuring different themes and budget hotels. At the same time, the park aims to build a number of themed playgrounds, entertainment facilities, shopping centers and natural landscapes to provide one-stop services for business travelers.

Achievements

According to the city's tourism work blueprint, Huaqiao launched a comprehensive tourism development program in 2012. Five major projects, including the Huaqiao Planning Exhibition Center, are in being assessed and will be put into operation shortly.

Four tourist spots in Huaqiao -- Dongnandong Culture and Creative Industrial Park, Huaqiao Planning Exhibition Center, Tianfu Ecological Park and the MIT Boutique Museum of Taiwan Commodity Trading Center -- won honors as "Star Tourist Spots" approved by the Kunshan municipal government for the first time at the municipal tourism working conference last month. The wins were a big step for Huaqiao's travel sector.