Will China save Swiss tourism again?

Dear reader,

Your humble editor is back from the QTM 2023 in Doha, a place which has optimism build into its DNA. The government currently is in the news with regard to its role in the Palestine conflict, but it is also having big plans to create harmony between a sustainable development and the building of a crazy megacity. Next door in Dubai, COP is starting this week, let’s see if the global community finally wakes up from sleepwalking into the climate and biodiversity catastrophe.

China’s announcement of a trial visa waiver policy for six countries, starting this weekend, and the growing arrival numbers of Chinese visitors in many destinations have resulted in a more positive outlook proclaimed by many major stakeholders.

Julia Simpson，CEO of WTTC stated that “Chinese cross-border travel could get back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024”. Tourism managers in China are also quite optimistic:

Qi Chunguang, the Vice President of Tuniu.com blamed the visa problem for the slow development in 2023: “Once the backlog of travel visas is resolved, demand for outbound travel will surge.” One of the top managers of Trip.com echoed Julia Simpson by saying that “Chinese cross-border travel could get back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024.”

However, some European leaders are still seeing the glass half empty. Switzerland tourism expects a return to pre-pandemic levels only for 2026. This forecast is discussed in this week’s edition Deep Dive and Facts and Views, which concentrate on Switzerland as a Chinese outbound tourism destination. As you will see, in fact China in September was already back to the position of the second biggest intercontinental source market and the fifth biggest source market overall.

This edition of COTRI INTELLIGENCE includes as usual the COTRI weekly Editorial, this text “China this week”, the News and the COTRI News in the free content part. For the Topic of the Week, the Deep Dive consulting and the Facts and Views, we invite you to consider a Premium or Premium Plus subscription and offer a special welcoming subscription for one month with a 59% discount here: https://cotri-intelligence.ghost.io/welcoming-offer .

In this week’s Topic of the Week we look at the end of the demographic dividend, which has turned into the problem of an aging society for China, but which also means that Silver Travellers are getting more importance as customers for outbound tourism.

In the News you will find as always selected news items about different aspects of the Chinese outbound market.

As always, all best wishes from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt and the entire COTRI INTELLIGENCE team!