HelmsBriscoe and VariArts Bring Meetings Procurement to China

HelmsBriscoe, the large meetings procurement and site selection company, and VariArts Travel Group, China’s leading high-end travel consolidator, announced partnership plans that will increase distribution of the HelmsBriscoe brand into the Chinese market.

The new venture will connect event planners and venues in China—a fast-growing MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) market—with HelmsBriscoe’s services and technology.

“China’s meetings market has huge potential,” says Roger Helms, founder and CEO of HelmsBriscoe, in a statement. “We will provide China’s meeting planners with a one-stop solution, greater resources, and more advanced technology to help them offer more complete services and compete for more group clients.”

China’s meetings industry is a $150 billion market with annual growth of more than 20 percent. The mainland boasts more than 2,000 convention hotels with 600,000 guestrooms. HelmsBriscoe’s 1,200 global associates serve 9,000 corporate, association, and government clients in 40 countries in helping to identify and secure venues at competitive rates as well as offer request-for-proposal (RFP) and contract-negotiation support.

HelmsBriscoe’s technology will also provide Chinese meeting planners with a new platform for connecting with their international colleagues to share industry knowledge, experiences, and up-to-date venue intelligence through HelmsBriscoe’s proprietary knowledge database.

“The HelmsBriscoe platform will create a true community in China’s meetings industry. It will encourage the growth of independent meeting planners in China feeding on our strong entrepreneurial culture,” says Lin Xu, founder and CEO of VariArts, in a statement. “We aim to become the meetings service procurement hub that brings professionalism and education, global support, and pricing advantage to our Chinese associates.”

VariArts Group is a leading resource in China for both inbound and outbound high-end travel services. Through its six subsidiaries, it offers customized destination management, event planning, destination marketing, and access to China’s growing outbound luxury travel market. Its China Luxury Travel Network, launched in 2010, is a high-end leisure travel network in China dedicated to increasing the service standards and sales performance of its by-invitation-only members.