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China Tourism Tuesday Episode 28
13 Plays25 days ago
In this week’s episode of China Tourism Tuesday (Episode 28), we take a close look at the World Travel Market in London and its implications for the China travel industry. We also discuss insights from CIIE in Shanghai and what these major events reveal about the evolving landscape of international destination branding in China.
This episode covers the latest visa and travel regulation updates, new flight routes, and key developments from the front lines of international tourism promotion in China’s outbound travel market.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Focus on China Market
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to China Tourism Tuesday, podcast discussion of marketing outbound tourism destinations in the China outbound tourism market. My name is Shao Albatain and I'm coming to you from Shanghai, China.
00:00:16
Speaker
Good day, everybody. My name is Michael Jones and I'm coming to you from Amsterdam. um So, Shao, a bunch of exciting things happening this week in the past week. Let's kick off with some China outbound tourism trains.
00:00:30
Speaker
Cool.
Resumption of China-Canada Group Travel
00:00:31
Speaker
So better late than never, China-Canada group travel finally resumes after the pandemic pause.
00:00:40
Speaker
don't know if we can call that a pause. It's more like ah yeah like a hiatus that a ban goes on. But um yeah, we're seeing Guangzhou, GZL, and U-Tour, Chinese agencies seeing absolute sellouts of their Canada itineraries.
00:00:57
Speaker
um Good timing just before the Chinese New Year, because its it's sort of beginning to heat up now, the promotional period. Part of Canada's new drive to target 160 billion Chinese Yuan in tourism revenue by 2030 with China as a key growth driver.
Visa-Free Travel Extensions
00:01:15
Speaker
um Good news for Sweden, um joining the rest of a bunch of European nations, much to the to the ire of our South Africans. um Visa-free entry to China.
00:01:27
Speaker
So that will be extended from November 10th, 2025, all the way through to the end of 2026. New Zealand, easier access for Chinese travelers. um If you hold a australian valid Australian visa with a Chinese passport, you may enter New Zealand visa-free for up to three months.
00:01:50
Speaker
It will be a 12-month trial.
Expansion of International Flights
00:01:52
Speaker
Hainan Airlines has expanded its Chaunching, Madrid um flight to three weekly flights as of 3rd December. And Xi'an Istanbul direct charter flights has been launched by Huayu Tours.
00:02:05
Speaker
So that's that for a few headline um tourism industry
Tourism Campaigns in China by Fiji and Thailand
00:02:11
Speaker
announcements. As for a few events, we are seeing um we've seen Fiji's tourism roadshow for China 2025 just completed, seven city roadshow across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Hong Kong.
00:02:25
Speaker
um Thailand feeling the heat a little bit or maybe the lack of heat from the China market launches an amazing Thailand passport privilege 2025 campaign offering exclusive darts and perks for international visitors.
00:02:40
Speaker
So they're targeting 200 to 300,000 Chinese rivals by the end of next year under the Big Impact Act Fast policy, very aptly named given that Thailand is at for the China market.
00:02:53
Speaker
um And finally, the Philippines have resumed e-visas for Chinese tourists. So um as of November the 3rd, 2025, tourism and business visas can stay for up to 14 days if they enter via Manila or Cebu.
00:03:12
Speaker
So yeah, that's all under the plan of the Philippines trying to double their Chinese arrivals in the next two years.
WTM London: China's Growing Influence
00:03:18
Speaker
That's the tourism news. Michael, over to you with yeah some WTM updates.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. So yeah last week I attended WTM ah in London. It was my second time to attend. And yeah, just so I'll give you guys a bit of a feedback of what I saw and felt. What but worked out pretty well this year is that no doubt the WTM organizers kind of drummed up focus on ah China more so than the last year. So it looks like China is starting to get space again in in the European circles when it comes to overall tourism strategies planning.
00:04:00
Speaker
So at WTM, they had a ah full-on panel discussion led by China Daily journalist Mingjia Wang, and he also had some experts on his panel.
00:04:14
Speaker
They had a really good discussion. and a world but was Not only it was a good discussion, but it was also just like well-placed, timed, and and really given the the status that it that it should be. So that was a really, really positive thing to see.
00:04:30
Speaker
um On the other hand, it was also also fascinating, again, to to fellow marketers, whether they be in the China market or other market.
Role of Hosts vs PR Agencies in Exhibitions
00:04:41
Speaker
It is also just interesting to see how things are changing from an exhibition, from a trade show perspective.
00:04:48
Speaker
um some Some colleagues that I know in America were complaining a bit about how some of the national pavilions are ah relying too much on kind of like hired hostesses and hosts.
00:05:02
Speaker
um as opposed to the PR agencies to feed through information to potential B2C clients, but so I'm not sure. that the The work that we normally do with these kind of exhibitions and national pavilions, yes, we absolutely do have hostesses and hosts, but it doesn't mean that they are the main message givers. We are normally on-site ourselves also to be there for that function.
00:05:30
Speaker
So I'm not a little bit, not too sure about that. What was really interesting to see that, well, was that a bunch of the leaders of the various tourism bureaus are actually like leading from the front and not only ah away in the meeting rooms with signing deals and media the
Booth Positioning Challenges at WTM
00:05:53
Speaker
whole time.
00:05:53
Speaker
ah One great example was South Africa tourism acting CEO Daryl Erasmus, yeah this was his first trip as Acting CEO, and he was literally at the front ah desk of the National Pavilion meeting with the consumers and talking to them and engaging with them.
00:06:13
Speaker
And he also told me afterwards that, well, that's also a great way for him to learn himself about the market, what is working, what not working. and And I thought that was quite great.
00:06:24
Speaker
um On other aspects of the show, um ah one country that we work with quite closely, Jordan Tourism Board, they won the best pavilion for the Middle East, ah which is quite an achievement against Saudi Arabia and the other big spending um destinations.
00:06:43
Speaker
um The only small or fairly small criticism I can give of WTM this year, which is actually exactly the same as last year, unfortunately, you've got all the main European and America's kind of stands in the beginning, and then Africa and India are right far away at the end, um quite quite a distance. and that so So on the one hand, they a little bit hidden away. I am not saying they hidden away, but they are a little bit hidden away, um a little bit out of reach, a little bit out of sight.
00:07:18
Speaker
um and And that has consequences for many of the participants at those booths of when it comes to their they're scheduled meetings. a lot There was a lot of no-shows,
00:07:33
Speaker
ah because of the distance that needed to be covered and things like that. ah but But then on the flip side, they they do they did still receive a lot of walk-ins. but But yeah, it is not exactly the prime kind of situation to have.
00:07:47
Speaker
But overall, no doubt WTM is just getting bigger and bigger. um There's more participation on both sides, on the buyers and the visitors side.
00:07:58
Speaker
And that's that's quite exciting. I mean, in the past, i would always compare WTM London with ITB Berlin. ITB Berlin has always been much bigger.
00:08:09
Speaker
But WTM is growing quite strongly now. So it remains a really relevant and important trade show.
European Focus on Chinese Tourists
00:08:17
Speaker
But yeah, so that was good. it was great to catch up with also all the different China actors there. And yeah, I look forward to going next year again.
00:08:26
Speaker
next year again and And Michael, what was the general sentiment from from what you could tell with discussions that you had with people at WTM around around just the China markets, the general you know continuing recovery?
00:08:41
Speaker
um What's what's the the sentiment on the ground that side? Yeah, so that that's actually a pretty good question from the point of view. I've seen a lot of information recently is still about I mean, WTM more Europe focused, right? So um in the past, I've definitely seen a few north North European countries kind of lacking interest in the China market.
00:09:08
Speaker
um That seems to be slowly but surely going. The pendulum seems to be swinging back towards favoring China plans and strategies again.
00:09:19
Speaker
um At the moment, out of Northern Europe, pretty much the main and the most active countries focus on the China market. Number one has to be Spain.
00:09:30
Speaker
Spain is really, really, they've really pushed all their air connectivity back into place and they're spending money and they they really, really are trying their best to attract Chinese tourists.
00:09:40
Speaker
um France is definitely up there also. France is definitely giving the Chinese market face and space of time. um And then you you do have the UK itself. The UK itself is also really pushing. You don't get a lot of negative sort of things being spoken about China there. People really do want to attract the Chinese tourists back.
00:09:59
Speaker
um But that still leaves a number of countries in Northern Europe that that are have... are less proactive. um But I see that it's coming back. ah ah As you know, one one of the countries so we were speaking to, um they are very keen on getting back into the China market. And they're busy developing plans right now and looking for agencies to jump into the China market from the beginning of next year.
00:10:24
Speaker
And they actually see their neighboring countries who are not being proactive in China as an opportunity. As an opportunity for them to grab... Yeah, market share.
00:10:35
Speaker
And I don't see any reasons why they will fail. um so So I think we are getting back to normal, where slowly but surely, where more of the markets, or sorry, the destinations absolutely have noticed that there is a spending gap in the tourists that they're currently receiving.
Influencer Activity and France's Diverse Offerings
00:10:58
Speaker
And ah possible solution for that is absolutely the China market. It's interesting um that you should mention the the European, um the the sense that the the European market is recovering a bit.
00:11:11
Speaker
So I mean, just in our routine work for you know some of our Thai clients, we do a lot of social media analytics for RedNote, just so they can also keep a ah handle on what is trending in specifically the travel space in terms of keywords on RedNote.
00:11:28
Speaker
Our analysis from about a week ago shows that okay Japan is is sort of top of the pile, um Korea ah close second, but then Paris um following very closely behind Korea.
00:11:42
Speaker
I would have never thought we would see the day that you know Paris and England are above Malaysia, are above Seoul, for example. Now, Seoul obviously being just one city in Korea. Korea's still a very top ranking destination. And this is also very sort of transitory kind of temporary data. But I mean, Russia's up there um ah shortly behind Seoul. And then Europe as a whole um is also within sort of the the top, shall we say, top 30, 40 travel terms.
00:12:18
Speaker
that people are actually um tagging. um And i'm i if I'm looking at the data now, it's looking back at October, which is specifically the golden travel month. And just anecdotally, I do get the sense that just from people's WeChat moments and their posts, um Europe is having is definitely having a bit of a moment now, ah specifically with Red Note users who really do do the traveling these days.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean, well, so it's also like double-edged sword. I mean, I find it fascinating. um I do travel to Paris somewhat often, at at least once a year.
00:12:58
Speaker
And and when what I find incredible is when you go to the Eiffel Tower,
Increased CIIE Participation from Developing Countries
00:13:04
Speaker
and it's especially been like this the past two years, pre-COVID, Maybe it was similar. I'm not sure. But it seems a lot more intense now.
00:13:13
Speaker
When you go to the Eiffel Tower, the amount of influencers standing, ringing at the tower, making videos is unbelievable.
00:13:24
Speaker
The amount of influencers that are there. um And we're certainly not talking about only Asian influencers. Now, you're talking about like people from literally every corner of this earth.
00:13:35
Speaker
ah They're making form of making short films and stuff like that. And it's incredible. I mean, it looks like these like little mini sets because you normally have these very glamorous-looking people, male and female,
00:13:47
Speaker
You've got a person helping with the holding up the phone, a bit of makeup throwing on here and there, ah like little mini-influencer studios outside all around tower.
00:13:58
Speaker
And and it's it's really quite hardcore. So, I mean, the the the thing about the Eiffel Tower is that it absolutely sells itself. I don't think the French government needs to do much to convince people to wonder to go and see that.
00:14:12
Speaker
But having said that also, i do travel France ah significantly for holidays and naturally go. France is such a massive country. It's got so many different tourist opportunities, so many options.
00:14:26
Speaker
And so naturally, for for my default is I go for a little bit more off the beaten track, a little bit more quieter places and stuff like that. Fair enough. ah But in these places that I go to, almost never see Chinese tourists.
00:14:40
Speaker
Never. um ah You will see a lot more local tourists, or you will see other German or other European tourists and stuff like that, but very, very little Asian. Because there is just so much to see, and naturally there are limited time. so they So I can understand the causes for these over-tourism debates and stuff like that, because because obviously everybody is concentrated around the Eiffel Tower, as opposed to going to like Normandy and Brittany and places like that.
00:15:05
Speaker
and So yeah, yeah as as just it's just absolutely fascinating. But but really, to see the amount of these influences around the Eiffel Tower, yeah it's quite an incredible sight. It's really fascinating. I can quite imagine. I mean, Shanghai's Bund is ah is a similar kind of a deal. it's just It's just, yeah, it's the world's only makeup studio with a river running through it. Yeah, exactly.
00:15:29
Speaker
So I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the the recently concluded CIE. um like I was there ah last week, and I can tell you that I still haven't recovered from all that walking around the the exhibition center. It's 430,000 square meters.
00:15:47
Speaker
thousand square meters Absolutely massive. you know they do this they do the um I think it's the it's ITB that they usually do in that in the exhibition center in Tsingpho. And usually they use about half a haul or two.
00:16:03
Speaker
But I've never seen all of the the whole center being put into full use. Absolutely massive.
CIIE's Focus on Goods and Country Branding
00:16:09
Speaker
um to just cut I'm not going to rattle off a bunch of stats here, but it was really good to see that 163 least developed countries um saw representation in terms of their enterprises attending CIE.
00:16:24
Speaker
And that's up almost 25% year onyear twenty three point five percent year, Even better, and probably in a bit of contrast with WTM, um African products saw an 80% increase um in participating African enterprises year on year.
00:16:42
Speaker
And you really could get the sense, I mean, just from you know from a South African perspective, which we are biased towards being South Africans, is that South Africa had no less than three big stand areas, not to mention the you know the smaller um South African individual ah brand areas that that also were in attendance. the the the The African presence at CIE was remarkable.
00:17:07
Speaker
and was very heartening to see. so And I mean, this is obviously tying in with ah the you know China's zero tariff policy for 53 African countries with diplomatic ties. So I mean, it's yeah with with the African development story, we always the the the future always looks bright, but we we're kind of always waiting. But this um to be able to see actually that people are in attendance, that there are brands in attendance, that there are people making deals.
00:17:38
Speaker
It really makes you feel like, okay a better you know a better economic prospect has arrived for the continent. And for those that don't know, China International Import-Exports, I mean, so so for for that, fee and fair enough, it is more geared up towards import and export, as the name indicates.
00:17:55
Speaker
But out of the developing countries, whether they be Africa or South America, um that that you did see, how much of a push do you think was on like a percentage slide between import-export and pushing for tourism? Were any like had like tourism messaging there?
00:18:14
Speaker
It wasn't much tourism messaging. there was um and what Tourism was, if anything, an afterthought for for you know the investment promotion and sort of the general country branding.
00:18:25
Speaker
um But no, there it was it was definitely more of a goods import and export. and less on on on services like tourism. so But it was either way. You know you you see but there's definitely a spillover effect. You know you see produce, you see shopping um from a certain country.
00:18:43
Speaker
That every little bit helps. every Every time a country shows up, especially countries like in Africa and but and you know obviously besides the the East African very well-branded nations.
00:18:58
Speaker
Every time a nation from West Africa or from Southern Africa shows up, it counts um in the in the minds of the Chinese market. So, um yeah, as I said, very, very happy to see that there were people there in in full force.
00:19:11
Speaker
All right. Thanks, Michael. um Good to chat. And yeah, we'll we'll see you on the next episode of China Tourism Tuesday. Yeah. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And if you have any questions or comments, please do let us know.
00:19:23
Speaker
Have a good day.