Apple's iPhone finally arrived at market in China on Friday, October 30 and is evidently selling fairly well, despite wallet-emptying prices.

ChinaNews.com found about 300 people queued up to buy the device at China Unicom's flagship store in Beijing. That's far fewer than you'd find at an Apple (AAPL) launch event in the U.S., but  the Chinese version of the iPhone is quite high, with prices ranging from 4,999 yuan ($730) and 6,999 yuan (about $1,025).

In any event, those higher prices and the device's lack of built-in Wi-Fi don't seem to be as much of a barrier as you might think. And if those issues do end up tempering sales a bit, well, perhaps China Unicom can make them up by poaching iPhone users from rival China Mobile.

As iPhonAsia's Dan Butterfield reported earlier this week, China Unicom is offering an amnesty to users of gray-market iPhones. "This amnesty program is designed to entice some 1.5 million grey-market iPhone owners in China to sign a contract and pop in a Unicom 3G sim card to take advantage of WCDMA 3G speeds and a variety of new ‘Wo' 3G services," Butterfield writes. "The ‘upgrade to 3G' program is no doubt aimed squarely at the approximate 1,000,000+ iPhones now running on China Mobile's EDGE 2G network."

What does that mean to travel and tourism, especially to travel brands (hotels, tourist boards, etc.) that are planning to market to Chinese consumers.  As I wrote in previous articles, many travel brands are still focused on traditional methods. Chinese consumers already heavily use the Internet to make their purchase decisions, while still using travel agents for final transactions for the most part due to convenience. 

Travel agents in China, for the most part, recommend travel packages that they have either known for years and offer them the greatest incentive, if the consumer has no specific destination or hotel in mind. This is why it is vitally important for brands to be top of mind with Chinese consumers BEFORE they contact a travel agency.

Obviously, and engaging web presence is vital, and lots of travel brands are just starting to move into this direction. But the launch of the iPhone in China, and the already high adoption of mobile phone usage, will make it even more critical for travel brands to develop a digital strategy, that includes mobile and smart phones, such as the iPhone, in order to build and increase brand awareness.

As in the US and in Europe, the iPhone has been a catalyst for consumers to get information on their mobile 9smart) phone, I believe that in China this development will be even more powerful.

But what to do? Develop some quick and dirty iPhone Apps in Chinese?

The opportunity in China is more complex and requires a more integrated strategy, starting with relevant content, and engaging web presence, starting with a social-media-ready website hosted in China, presence on Chinese social media sites, and then content and applications for smart phone – and last but not least, the smartest brand look at true convergence and connect offline with online.

If it is bringing people together offline at events after they connected online, or driving online campaigns offline to travel agents with innovative incentive programs. Most importantly, the landscape in China is changing rapidly. Market knowledge is vital, and the right relationships are critical for success.

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