EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key to a good travel experience is a good service experience. When travelers feel welcome and well taken care off, this will reflect on their overall travel experience and they may consider returning for more, possibly even recommend others to go too.
A good service experience is, however, relative. Differences of culture and customs denotes different expectations to good service. As the Chinese outbound travel continues to grow at impressive rates, there is an increasing need to understand and adapt services to the specific expectations of Chinese travelers, whether in hotels, shops, museums, ticket counters or when hosting Chinese technical visits and company delegations.
As Lead Partner of the CHINAVIA II project, Wonderful Copenhagen hereby requests bidders to submit proposals for the task of developing and conducting China Ready Training for frontline service personnel and management in direct contact with Chinese guests.
This Request for Proposals (RfP) details the requested training related to the task of preparing Scandinavian service industry to meet Chinese travelers’ service expectations, here titled China Ready Training. The following sections provide a brief outline of the project, the training deliverables, required qualifications as well as criteria for selection of bidders and conditions for delivery with regards to budget and timeline.
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
The overall objective of CHINAVIA II: China Ready Service Training is to provide Scandinavian frontline service personnel and management with a better understanding of Chinese travelers and their service expectations. The training will furthermore provide concrete suggestions and tools for service providers, enabling them to improve their service to Chinese guests, whether in a hotel, museum, restaurant or elsewhere.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
While Chinese travelers account for only a small percentage of international bednights in Scandinavia, the Chinese travel segment carries not only great growth potential, but also great spending potential to Scandinavian destinations.
The CHINAVIA II project is a joint Scandinavian project financed by partner contributions and interregional EU funds. The overall purpose is to make Scandinavia and the Scandinavian destinations more attractive and welcoming to Chinese travelers.
In preparation of the CHINAVIA II project, Wonderful Copenhagen and a group of Scandinavian partners carried out a one-year pilot project with the objective of collecting more knowledge of Chinese tourists to Scandinavia. As part of the pilot project, a survey of approximately 700 Chinese tourists was conducted and the results were unequivocal. While the Scandinavian destinations carry great potential as travel destinations with historical sites, beautiful nature and unique local culture, the destinations are challenged by the Chinese travelers’ poor experiences of service and convenience. While the latter largely concerns the widespread lack of Chinese language information, the poor service experiences concern a meeting of service cultures and expectations.
To ensure and further strengthen the appeal of Scandinavian destinations to Chinese travelers, we need to improve our welcome and service. This does not involve teaching all Scandinavian service personnel to speak Mandarin or providing all written information in Chinese characters. It does, however, involve furthering our understanding of the Chinese service culture and providing concrete insights and answers to key questions like how to make our Chinese guests feel more welcome, how to better meet their expectations to good service and provide for their specific needs in terms of service information, products and amenities.
These questions provide the starting point of the China Ready Training offered within the framework of CHINAVIA II project.
SCOPE OF DELIVERY
The China Ready Training of the CHINAVIA II project centers on two primary deliverables, namely the development and execution of China Ready Crash Courses throughout the CHINAVIA II partner region and secondly implementation of the training materials into a digital learning platform. Both deliverables are detailed below.
China Ready Crash Courses
The China Ready Crash Courses will introduce participants to the service culture of their Chinese guests, provide insights into the concrete expectations to service provision and facilitate a better understanding of the differences in service culture and perceptions. Finally, the China Ready Crash Courses will offer tangible suggestions and tools for participants to improve their service offers to their Chinese guests and visitors.
The Crash Courses will be delivered in four different locations, targeting three different categories of participants (PLEASE REFER TO THE ATTACHED RFP FOR DETAILS).
The Crash Courses will focus on three (3) different groups of participants, namely:
- Hotel, Restaurant & Retail – servicing Chinese guests.
- Visitor Attractions, Museums & Tourist Information Offices – catering to Chinese guests.
- Technical Visits & Delegations – hosting Chinese guests.
Note that participants in the Crash Courses, regardless of category, are busy professionals and so Crash Course content must clearly reflect the professional areas of the participant groups, providing targeted and relevant input and suggestions for them to take back to their everyday work.
Wonderful Copenhagen aims for altogether 17 Crash Courses to be carried out in the four (4) different partner locations across Scandinavia: Kristiansand (NO), Copenhagen (DK), Gothenburg (SE) and Malmö (SE).
The training materials for the Crash Courses will be largely applicable across the CHINAVIA II partner locations, although minor changes may be necessary to accommodate local differences in requirements and priority of the CHINAVIA II partners. Learning materials should be provided in English.
All Crash Courses will be hosted in easily accessible locations in Copenhagen (DK), Malmö (SE), Gothenburg (SE) and Kristiansand (NO). It is the objective and hope of each course to see an attendance of 30-40 participants, yet the actual participant number may vary according to location, marketing measures and general industry interest.
All Crash Courses should be conducted in English.
Digital Learning Platform
The Crash Courses are limited in reach and time. To ensure the broadest possible effect and benefit of the China Ready Training, the course materials should be made available through a CHINAVIA II digital learning platform.
The digital learning platform serves several purposes, namely as:
- Brush-up and additional learning for the participants of the Crash Courses.
- Learning resources for service personnel unable to attend the Crash Courses.
Hence, the digital learning materials available should contain all the information provided in the Crash Courses. Concerning form and functionality of the digital learning platform, providers have somewhat creative and professional leverage to suggest the most favorable solution. The solution offered should, however, fall within the range of a small-scale solution of “10 step tutorials to prepare your service to Chinese visitors” and a full-scale solution of online training sessions and webinars.
The digital learning platform should be provided in English. Note also that all developed materials, whether in printed or digital format, are required to make visible all relevant partner logos, including the EU and Interreg IVa logo.
COURSE COORDINATION
As lead partner of the CHINAVIA II project, Wonderful Copenhagen will be the primary point of contact for the training provider, overseeing the selection of training provider, the development of training materials and ensuring the coordination between provider and each of the CHINAVIA II partners in terms of timing and themes for the Crash Courses.
The training provider is responsible for the professional execution of the Crash Courses, which also involves collecting all relevant knowledge and necessary information from partners beforehand.
QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS
The selected provider of China Ready Training should, as a minimum, fulfill the key requirements as listed below, deemed imperative to providing the training services in a satisfactory manner.
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of Chinese service culture;
- Proven insights into the expectations and behavior of Chinese travelers;
- Insights into Chinese outbound travel market;
- Proven experience in training professionals in topics related to Chinese culture;
- Professional teaching capabilities and methodology;
- Extensive experience in developing professional and targeted learning materials;
- Firm understanding of the service industry;
- Understanding of European/Scandinavian service culture in order to be able to highlight and mediate differences;
- Experience in providing easy-to-use digital learning tools;
- Experience in conducting Chinese (Mandarin) language training.
BUDGET & TIMELINE
The inaugural China Ready Crash Course is intended to be held in Copenhagen, February 2014. Following the inaugural Crash Course, adjustments may be required according to the feedback of participants (including participants from the CHINAVIA II project partners).
Wonderful Copenhagen reserves the right to demand a new trainer (from the same provider) for the remaining Crash Courses, if the inaugural course is not delivered according to the agreed and required standards of professionalism, methodology and language proficiency.
Following the launch in Copenhagen, the remaining Crash Courses in Copenhagen and the other CHINAVIA II partner locations will be carried out during spring 2014 (March – June 2014) and autumn / winter (September - December 2014). The Digital Learning Platform is to be established in spring 2014 and made readily available no later than June 2014, preferably sooner. (PLEASE REFER TO THE ATTACHED RFP FOR DETAILS).
The budget submitted by bidders should include all costs related to the China Ready Training, including but not limited to meetings and travel expenses related to both preparation of and actual execution of training sessions, development of training materials, production and print of training materials, work hours and the costs of subproviders, if any. The budget should also include development, programming, content provision and launch of a digital learning platform, whether small-scale or full-scale as outlined in the above section on Scope of Delivery.
FORMAT OF PROPOSAL
The technical proposal of bidders should, as a minimum, include:
- Description, including table of contents for China Ready Crash Courses according to the three (3) themes outlined above.
- Bidder’s profile and record of accomplishment.
- Details of trainers who will undertake the training sessions, including qualifications, certifications (if any) and documentation for English language proficiency.
- At least five (5) references for similar training assignments undertaken in the past three (3) years, including participants’ endorsements and feedback if available.
- Examples of teaching materials developed for similar training assignments.
- Examples of different training methodologies used.
- Description of bidder’s suggestions for the Digital Learning solution and plan for implementation.
- Documentation (and links, if available) for similar digital learning solutions as developed by bidder or in cooperation with bidder.
- Assumptions made, if any, of the deliveries from and role of Wonderful Copenhagen as client representative.
The financial proposal should, as a minimum, include detailed price specifications of:
- Development & production of learning materials, including print and graphics, if required;
- Execution of Crash Courses (incl. travel expenses, work hours, meetings etc.)
- Development & launch of Digital Learning Platform
Please note that the financial proposal should include all necessary costs to fulfill the task of crash courses and digital learning as outlined in present Request for Proposals, including travel costs to all four training locations: Copenhagen (DK), Malmö (SE), Gothenburg (SE) and Kristiansand (NO).
Wonderful Copenhagen will consider the proposed costs as the overall cost with no obligation to reimburse any additional direct or indirect costs as part of the task completion and delivery.
Wonderful Copenhagen furthermore reserves the right not to select any of the received bids for the assignment.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Wonderful Copenhagen will represent the CHINAVIA II project partners in the process of both collecting, evaluating and selecting proposals. Wonderful Copenhagen will also coordinate the workflow and process after selection.
The bidder shall bear all costs associated with the preparation and submission of the proposal up to the final award of the contract. Wonderful Copenhagen and the CHINAVIA II project will in no case be responsible or liable for those costs, regardless of the conduct of outcome of the procurement process.
Proposals should be submitted in English.