Advertisement
Into my second week of work, and I'm starting to get bored of engaging in my daily routine of translating travel-related articles and travelogues. It's still fun globetrotting online, but, well the more effortless any task is, the less interesting it can be. So after overcoming - somewhat - the challenge of english-chinese translation, I was raring for more to come. This whole works of getting bored has become part of the routine, too - it usually sets in after lunch and is accompanied by symptoms like drying eyes and restless fidgeting.
Now before these words are (mis)taken to be a developing dislike for the job, let me clarify - in fact, I really do enjoy this job for the most part of it, and amongst the variety of holiday jobs I have undertaken, this is probably one of the best. And the Chief Editor has expanded my responsibilities within 2 days on the job, i.e. organize outreach activities and design special features (which really are unbelievable opportunities for an intern). It's just that, staring at the monitor long-term (I consider 8 hours/day long-term) never fails to get the better of me (my eyes, rather), coupled with the daily fatigue-that-sets-in-after-lunch...
So anyway. Just as I was fighting the B-monster this afternoon, Amy came in and told me to go for a press conference on her behalf. My eyes literally lit up immediately. The conversation went something like,
Amy: Kelly, I will not be able to attend this afternoon's press conference, you on my behalf, all right?
Me: Uh. Oh. Okay! What time is the conference? (It was 5.40pm at time of conversation).
Amy: 6.15pm, at Shangri-la Kerry Centre Hotel
Me: Oh! So I gotta leave, like Now!
...
I grabbed the recorder, camera, etc and got out of the stuffy office (some colleagues have been complaining TO NO END about the heat, sometimes it gets annoying) to a breath of refreshing air. As the Chinese saying (well, since I'm in China after all) goes, it's like a used-to-be-caged bird embracing its newfound freedom. I love being on the move, I love the feeling of being on the move.
Kerry Centre Hotel is located near the 世贸 World Trade Subway. So tonight, I got to see yet another side of Beijing. Tall skyscrapers, cosmopolitan hotels with fancy interiors, branded boutiques Armani and the like, blonde/auburn-haired individuals i.e.
Posing for the media
I love prancing around with the camera - my privilege of being part of the media Westerners (of whom I have encountered frequently in Qianmen/Tiananmen area when I was traveling prior to the internship, but not once at Baobaoshan area where I now stay and work - one basic example of the diversity within various parts of Beijing).
So anyway, today's press conference was with regard to the growing online travel industry in China. Speakers included Expedia (TripAdvisor) Chairman and executive officers, and CEOs of 3 Chinese online travel sites - daodao.com (TripAdvisor's China franchise), eLong.com (online travel service web) and kuxun.cn (China's leading travel search engine). Being a fervent supporters and patron of online travel websites, I personally feel that sites like TripAdvisor serve as effective "one-stop solutions" to all our travel queries. And the fact that they offer user-generated content makes it all the more personal and arguably, reliable. It adds to the entire experience of planning for your trip and customizing it according to your interests. Ever since I started traveling without parents-choice-tour-packages, accommodation booking sites like Hostelworld and Hostelbookers have become key ingredients for my travel experience (and I have no complaints thus far, heh). These platforms are mutually beneficial for both travelers and travel providers.
Worldwide, TripAdvisor seems to
be enjoying a stronghold on its majority market share. In China though, curiously, while the online travel industry - though growing - remains at a mere 5%, the influx of online travel sites have been on a crazy increase. I was just wondering if this spells market saturation in time to come - it'd be interesting to watch how similar sites strengthen their positioning and differentiate strategies to stand out from the crowd.
Thoughts on this?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.13s; Tpl: 0.031s; cc: 6; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0844s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb