The Chinese are coming back!

China’s outbound tourism starts climbing back to No. 1 position in the world

It is less than two months ago that Chinese citizens could apply for passports again and just two weeks ago that Chinese tour operators were officially allowed to sell outbound trips for what is euphemistically is called “group travel” to 20 destinations, even though most customers are just buying air tickets and hotel reservations.

The speed of the recovery process is impressing: Reports from many cities indicate that it takes only about a week to get a new passport, other travel restrictions are also falling to the wayside quickly:

The clash between South Korea and China over discriminatory treatment seems to be over: since last Friday, South Koreans can get visa for China again and the South Korean government has ended special treatments for Chinese.

European Union countries have agreed to phase out COVID-19 restrictions on travellers from China and will also stop random testing of travellers from China by the middle of next month.

Chinese companies have also started again outbound investment in tourism infrastructure with the Shanghai retailer Yuyuan Tourist Mart announcing plans to investing about 120 million USD in a Japanese ski resort project on Hokkaido.

Airlines bringing back a multitude of routes to and from China and ticket prices are in most cases back to pre-pandemic levels.

Business, studies and family reunions are major reasons for the first outbound travellers, but the first leisure tourists have already been sighted not only in the neighbouring countries but also in Sydney, Paris and Milano.

The lamentable shortage of coffins in China is almost forgotten already, to be superseded by a lack of dressing gowns for all the brides who had to wait for their marriages, resulting also in a wave of honeymoon trips to exotic locations providing the background for the essential honeymoon pictures.

The year 2022 ended with a total number of outbound trips below nine million, about 5% of the 2019 level. Even worse, more than five million of these trips went no further than Macau SAR. Hong Kong SAR welcomed 375,000 Mainlanders, five times the number of 2021, but still less than 1% of the 2019 arrivals. However, notwithstanding another Black Swan event or an attack on Taiwan, Chinese travellers will be able to make the steep climb back to the top of all international tourism source markets during the current year.

We are proud to receive an ongoing stream of positive reviews in the media as well as praise by professionals who bought and read our China Outbound Tourism Handbook 2023: 88 PRACTICAL WAYS TO PREPARE FOR THE NEW WAVE OF CHINESE VISITORS - China Outbound Tourism Handbook 2023. It is still the only up-to-date publication available providing practical advice for the industry to prepare for the new wave of Chinese travellers. Get your copy here: https://payhip.com/b/QuVRO.

As it turns out, many organisations and companies have lost much of their knowledge and experience for the Chinese outbound market, as the “China” person in the structure was – for lack of work – either kicked out, given another field of work or walked away, taking with him or her a lot of the necessary background about the development of China’s outbound tourism in pre-pandemic times. COTRI is therefore offering our publications from the years 2015 to 2020 at much reduced prices for immediate download. They provide a treasure chest full of insights and market intelligence which is still useful to learn what to do right and what mistakes not to repeat. Eleven publications are waiting for you here: https://payhip.com/MeaningfulTourism/collection/cotri-market-reports.

Furthermore, your humble editor is looking forward to meet many of the COTRI Weekly readers during the ITB Berlin from March 7-9. If you want to make an appointment for a personal meeting, please drop us a line. On March 9th there will be a China outbound panel organised by WTCF World Tourism Cities Federation, which will also have me as a panellist.

Some of our readers will certainly also be among the participants of the China outbound workshops, which will happen starting in March in Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, UK and other places. If you are interested to host such a “Recovery” training and workshop in your destinations or company, please let us know.

As always, best wishes from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt FRGS FRAS and the entire COTRI Weekly team to all our readers!

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