H.T.M.S. International - General Sales Agent for independent hotel chains and destinations, announces the opening of its 12^th international office.

The opening of H.T.M.S. China, says Gianni Martino president of the firm established in Italy in 1988, completes the first round of the international development that started in 1994 with the incorporation of  H.T.M.S. Scandinavia in Stockholm.

Again H.T.M.S. came first as a GSA organization, to provide the local and worldwide travel and hospitality industry with outsourced, efficient and cost effective sales & marketing services. In this way, HTMS International aims to penetrate the huge, unknown and emerging Chinese market, as it did in Russia five years ago with the establishment of the Moscow based H.T.M.S. Eastern Europe.

H.T.M.S. China will be fully operating in Shanghai from September 1^st , covering China and South East Asia. Its multilingual sales staff, both Chinese and international has gained significant experience in both tourism sales & marketing and has in-depth knowledge of the characteristics, dynamics and, of course, will become the key player in this vibrant and booming inbound and outbound tourism industry in China.

China has a population of 1.3 million people, with 31 million departures to overseas destinations and over 100 million foreign tourists visiting. With over 200 millions people wealthy enough to travel abroad and a GDP growth of 9.5% per year, China is expected to be the World's major player of tourism within 10 years.

Daniele Solari, a Shanghai resident European, with his flawless Mandarin accent, is the appointed manager of this first Asian operation of HTMS. Solari graduated in the UK then he also achieved significant experience as an hotelier in Italy before moving to China where he managed the representative office of a Pan-European inbound tour operator.

For further details and information: www.htmsinternational.com