More travelers but less money spent during China's Golden Week (2023, April 29–May 3) (#162)
More travelers but less money spent during China's Golden Week in 2023 (April 29–May 3) vs 2019. This contrasts with international travel to France in the summer of 2022, when less travelers spent more vs 2019.
Are the digital and immersive tools, accelerated during the health crisis to propose remote visits, in the process of being permanently invited into the post-covid travel ?
New consumption trends of Chinese tourists during Golden Week
If the attendance of domestic chiness tourism increases (+19%) the individual consumption per tourist decreases (-10%)...
274 million tourists traveled in China for Golden Week 2023 (April 29 - May 3), including 120 million by train according to China State Railway Group. This represents a 19% increase compared to 2019, and can be considered as a "revenge trip". However, But it is difficult to talk about "revenge consumption". In fact, the Chinese Ministry of Tourism and Culture estimates that Chinese tourists' spending grew by 0.66% vs 2019, which translates to a 10% decrease in individual spending of 148 billion ($21 billion).
...and get reorganized?
In this context, two major trends in Chinese tourist spending during Golden Week (April 29 - May 3, 2023):
The digital museum at the heart of Chinese tourism
Fliggy launches augmented reality glasses to visit a museum
During the 3 long years of the health crisis, Fliggy, Alibaba OTA, had only one obsession: to prepare for the return of Chinese outbound tourism. For 3 years, Fliggy has multiplied operations to maintain the link with tourists.
This was the case, for example, with the tourist transposition of e-commerce livestreaming as part of the "virtual tourism series" at the Chateau de Versailles, the Louvre museum or the British museum in 2020 and 2022 and with World Cup Package in Qatar in 2022.
These different operations were not only tests, but also tools for promoting destinations not yet known in China such as Qatar, a finally big data solutions to collect data on the expectations of destinations and tourists. And this, in order to know them better and, thus, to be able to invent and sell new products. Without forgetting to anticipate and prepare the tools that will be implemented when things return to normal.
The "Virtual Tourism Series" launched in 2020 and extended to e-commerce in 2022 have been such a success that they will probably last but after the return to normal of international tourism as a tool for preparing and carrying out travel. The World Cup Package, which had been designed for Chinese tourists, was a great success with the Chinese diaspora. This allowing both to address this so-called diaspora with a clear tourist product while preparing the same type of offer for Chinese tourists from China in 2024 in the frame of OG in France.
Each time, both revealing new trends in digital tourism and surfing on them, by creating a new tourist product that finds its market, Fliggy has maintained the link between destinations and tourists. And this, by creating digital, phygital, or classic tools while collecting data on tourists to invent next products or solutions, the timing and speed of implementation of which will depend on the timing of the resumption of Chinese tourism.
领英推荐
At the crossroads between the virtual series of 2020-2022 and the return of Chinese tourism to the situation of 2019, Fliggy has just launched, in cooperation with a Spanish museum, augmented reality glasses.
The acceleration of tourism's digitization during the Covid period, as evidenced by this new service from Fliggy, has unquestionably altered how Chinese tourists and locations interact over the long run. Gen Z who used digital tourism tools a lot during the Covid is not only the generation that could use them the most for post-covid tourism (with Fliggy AR glass experience for instance) but also the generation that could impels the outbound chinese recovery.
Vidéo of the week
The China National Film Museum LED digital waterfall, an immersive scene that spans 4 floors of the museum. Echoing the Virtual series and Fliggy's augmented reality glass that Gen Z appeals to so much, the digital stunt videos have gone viral on social media due to their awe-inspiring visuals. Even if, as Dudarenok 艾熙丽 Ashley reminds us, whom I thank once again for sharing this information, that fans of the museum find it a nuisance considering that the museum has become a meeting place for Wanghongs (celebrities Internet).
Two trends in China's domestic tourism have been revealed by the Golden Week holiday from April 29 - May 3.
The intersection of these two trends is that, as the number of people seeking travel retribution after three years of abstinence rises (+20% from 2019), their travel spending falls (-10%).
If prior to Covid, shopping was one of the primary purposes of Chinese travel, can the new Chinese traveler of 2023 sustainably purchase luxury goods outside of trip and thus spend less when they are there and travel more?
Will the new Chinese tourism in France in 2023 and especially in 2024 be less spendthrift but more prevalent than in 2019 while international tourism in France in the summer of 2022 (hence without the Chinese) was less numerous but more spendthrift.
The growing success of Hainan in China, not only a very nice place for vacations but also a duty-free shopping spot illustrates how holidays, e-commerce, digital innovations and duty free purchases are used to encourage the Chinese and in particular gen Z to prioritize China as a place to buy their luxury goods. Additionally, this is done to facilitate and assist China's tourism industry as it transitions from mass-market, group tourism focused on shopping to personalized, experience-based tourism.