The hotel industry is holding its breath to see where Chinese outbound travelers will go and when as the world’s second-largest population and largest traveling cohort fully emerges from the pandemic.
Speakers at the World Travel Market held in London’s ExCeL convention center said Chinese guests’ preferences and requirements have already changed.
High-spending independent travelers are replacing large travel groups. Vacations highlighting cultural immersion, enriched experience, digital engagement and off-the-beaten-track destinations are replacing “if it is Tuesday, it must be Belgium”-type European itineraries. Self-driving vacations are gaining popularity, and travelers born post-1990 have become the dominant overseas travel segment.
One thing that has remained important is the need for easy digital payment methods.
Chinese travel has rebounded, said Adam Wu, CEO of travel management firm CBN Travel & MICE. But “China is almost a different country now than it was in 2019,” he said.
According to the China National Tourism Administration, in the first half of 2023 Chinese travelers numbered 40.37 million.
For the first half of 2023, the top 10 outbound destinations for Chinese travelers were Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Thailand, France, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Singapore, said Anna Lan, CEO of CN Travel Group.
She said France’s inclusion in the top five is indicative of Chinese travelers beginning to once again look farther afield.
Chinese air-passenger travel, both domestically and international, has reached only 23% of its 2019 total. But for just international travel, it is now at 41.6% of 2019 levels, Wu said.
That has gone hand in hand with new Chinese government policies starting at the beginning of 2023 that have opened up countries to Chinese travelers. The latest step in that process was on Aug. 10 when another 78 countries became accessible for a total of 138.
Spending is increasing, too, Wu added. Alipay — perhaps the most important Chinese digital payment platform — reports Chinese outbound traveler spend was $134.6 billion in 2022, a rising figure that remains approximately 47% lower than full-year 2019 spending.
Lan said another important consideration is rather than seeking the lowest price, Chinese travelers are seeking the most competitive price for the experiences they want.
For the weeklong National Day Golden Week holiday, perhaps the first real test of returning Chinese travelers last month, Chinese travelers took 826 million trips. The majority of trips were within China itself but also included 5.95 million overseas trips, Wu said.
Making It Easy
Wu said he has seen the daily queues at embassies and consulates in China, “and they are huge.”
“But the Chinese are showing a preference for those places with fewer visa and document hurdles,” he said.
Khalid Al Midfa, chairman of Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority, said the United Arab Emirates’ Sharjah has continued to foster good relationships with China, a process he said started in the late 1970s.
He said the Chinese are continuing to show their fascination with Arab culture that has its origins in the tales, history, trade, food and culture of ancient Silk Road routes, cities and destinations that span China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq and other countries before reaching Arabian destinations.
“Language was a big barrier, but that is not so much the case anymore. They know exactly what it is they want and now no longer need to stay in groups. Even during COVID-19, we did not stop marketing and improving our relationships,” he said.
Yiman Lin, senior product manager at The British Museum, said overseas government institutions have the Chinese traveler as a main focus of their development strategies, too.
The British Museum has just ended its five-month “China’s hidden century” exhibit, which attracted many Chinese visitors.
“It was one of the most popular exhibits in our history, but even before COVID-19, Chinese visitors made up more than 50% of our international visitors,” Lin said.
She said the Little Red Book, a Chinese lifestyle-sharing and purchasing platform that in Chinese is known as Xiaohongshu, is becoming more important.
The British Museum also has produced a Chinese-language app.
“But the British Museum started out as a famous museum in China, so our question is how do we keep our name central to any conversation,” Lin said.