TIANJIN, China - He could be the dream boss of many, as a Chinese billionaire takes his 6,400 employees on a holiday vacation in France.
The employees of Tiens Group, a conglomerate chaired by one of China's business billionaires, Li Jinyuan, is the biggest tour group to ever visit France. During the four-day break between Paris and Nice the group is expected to spend €13 million (£9.5 million) on hotels, food and excursions including a mass private viewing of the Louvre museum and a trip to the Moulin Rouge cabaret show.
On Friday 147 buses took the group from their four or five-star hotels to the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, where they formed the words “Tiens’ dream is Nice in the Cote d’Azur”, in a record-breaking "longest human-made phrase".
“We have have mobilised public services as well as tourism professionals, hotels, restaurants, shops and designer brands,” Christian Mantel, head of Atout France, a tourism development agency, told AFP.
“So far everything has gone smoothly, the feedback has been extremely positive.”
Mr Li, who was featured on Forbes 2011 list of the world’s billionaires, founded Tiens Group in 1995. The conglomerate has diverse business in biotechnology, logistics, finance, property, tourism and retail and has more than 12,000 employees, half of whom went to France to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary.
