CORNING, NY —The Corning Museum of Glass will offer a half-day seminar, Welcoming Chinese Visitors: Strategies for Success, on Tuesday, December 10, from 8:30 am to 12:30 p.m.
This is an important topic to The Corning Museum of Glass. In 2012, the Museum welcomed more than 130,000 visitors from Chinese tour groups, more than a quarter of the Museum’s annual visitation. The Museum offers demonstrations and tour maps translated into Mandarin, and a number of other amenities for Chinese tourists.
The seminar is designed to give attractions, hotels and other businesses that service tourists an overview of the Chinese market and a look at best practices for servicing this market. Five experts in inbound Chinese tourism will speak:
• Haybina Hao, director of international development at the National Tour Association (NTA), will give an overview of the market and its future growth.
• Xiachuan Jing of China’s UnionPay credit card company will share information about the importance and benefits of offering the UnionPay option.
• Paul Cohen, vice president of Optriant, a hospitality firm specializing in helping the tourism industry service the Chinese visitor, will share specifics on how to make hotels and attractions more welcoming for the Chinese visitor.
• Jack So, co-owner of L&L Travel, one of the largest Chinese tour operators based in Chinatown/NYC, will answer questions about what tour companies are looking for.
• Markly Wilson, director of international tourism for I Love NY, will speak about the Division of Tourism’s plans and opportunities to increase tourism from China to all of New York State.
The cost is $60 for registrations before December 10, or $69 the day of the event. The fee includes a $10 lunch voucher at the Museum’s café. For more information and registration details, visit cmog.org/tourismevent.
About The Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass is home to the world’s most important collection of glass, including the finest examples of glassmaking spanning 3,500 years. Live glassblowing demonstrations (offered at the Museum, on the road, and at sea on Celebrity Cruises) bring the material to life. Daily Make Your Own Glass experiences at the Museum enable visitors to create work in a state-of-the-art glassmaking studio. The campus in Corning includes a year-round glassmaking school, The Studio, and the Rakow Research Library, the world’s preeminent collection of materials on the art and history of glass. Located in the heart of the Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State, the Museum is open daily, year-round. Kids and teens, 19 and under, receive free admission. www.cmog.org.
The Museum is currently adding a North Wing, designed by Thomas Phifer, which will open in late 2014. The 100,000-square-foot North Wing addition will include a new 26,000-square-foot contemporary art gallery building, as well as one of the world’s largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions.
