Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
China Tourism Tuesday Episode 13
12 Plays4 months ago
In today's episode, we discuss the hottest outbound travel packages to the Middle East ahead of China's May 1st Golden Week holidays coming up. We also touch on the recent World Tourism Cities Federation's Hong Kong Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit, where cities from Africa to Eurasia and beyond were given a platform to promote their respective destinations to a broad range of China decision makers.
Recommended
Transcript
Marketing Middle East travel trends to China
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to China Tourism Tuesday, discussion of marketing international tourism destinations in the China outbound tourism markets. Today, what we'll be discussing is Middle East travel trends, looking at a few products and a few trends in the China travel market, and also the general state of play as to where China is right now with outbound travel.
Trending group travel packages
00:00:24
Speaker
So, Michael, I understand you've done a small you've had a discussion with our team, our sales team, and you've looked a bit at what are the hottest travel packages right now to the Middle East for China.
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah, thank you, Shell. Good day, everybody. Yes, ah so we spoke to our tour operator relations team to just find out what are the main um trending outbound group packages at the moment for the Chinese markets to the Middle East.
00:00:56
Speaker
um Now, I do need to stress that these are group packages. It's not for the FITs. It's not ah crazy luxury. These are group tours going out to the Middle
Detailed travel package offerings
00:01:11
Speaker
East.
00:01:11
Speaker
But what was interesting to see was... what are kind of the trending destinations in the Middle East at the moment, how many days they're traveling for, and generally what the rife what the rough prices per person.
00:01:26
Speaker
um So let's just kick off. And ah the in no particular order, um there is a package at the moment trending for Oman, and that is a six days trip.
00:01:41
Speaker
and that is going to be costing roughly 2,500 US dollars per person for the six days. um Then we've got um Turkey. There's a 10 days to Turkey, and that's going for $1,250. So that's quite a difference in price there. It's one of the more economical packages.
00:02:07
Speaker
Another one of the more economical packages is to the UAE. It's for six days, and that's roughly around a thousand US dollars per person.
00:02:19
Speaker
Then also not too bad in price at all, it's also quite economical, is an eight-day trip to Egypt, and that's around $1,400 per person.
00:02:32
Speaker
Then we've also got on the more higher end or the more expensive side of things, but also for longer days, so it works out pretty well.
00:02:43
Speaker
There's actually a fantastic nine-day trip to Jordan, and that's $2,250. And then lastly, out of these all of the ones we've been looking at, there's a nine-day trip to Saudi Arabia.
00:03:01
Speaker
It's the most expensive out of all of them, and that's for $4,500 per person for nine <unk> for the nine days So, yeah, we've got Oman, Turkey, UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and
Single vs multi-destination itineraries
00:03:16
Speaker
Jordan. So as you can hear these are all single destination trips.
00:03:23
Speaker
And, um yeah, these are the ones that are pretty much being promoted the most, that are floating around on the Chinese social media the most at the at the moment, so especially with a view for the May holidays coming up.
00:03:39
Speaker
um Then in terms of multi-itinerary, multi-destination itineraries, we've got a Egypt and Jordan combined for 10 days.
00:03:52
Speaker
That's $3,000 per person. And then the biggest out of all of them in terms of days and spend is Bahrain and Qatar and Saudi Arabia combined for 12 days.
00:04:09
Speaker
And that's $5,800 per person. eight hundred dollars ah purpose So yeah, that's just a bit of a to give everybody a bit of an insight as to what are the main group outbound packages from China to the Middle East that are trending at the moment. This is again shared with us from our tour operator relations team that have been discussing precisely this topic with their main contacts at Chinese outbound tour operators that are focused on the Middle East.
00:04:42
Speaker
um So, yeah, out of this list, I mean, Charles, do you think there's anything interesting that like catches your attention um out of this?
Saudi Arabia's impact on Chinese travel
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the the the nine-day Saudi package um at that price point of $4,500 USD really tells me that um Saudi is beginning to really make a footprint in terms of travel,
00:05:06
Speaker
um it's it's always a sort of a dynamic of getting the people in, getting the experiences in, um ironing out you know all of the concerns and all of the sort of pain points that people have, especially in China.
00:05:20
Speaker
You know, china is not ah Chinese travelers can be difficult in terms of um what they like, what they don't like. They can be very vocal about what it is that they prefer. But at the same time, as you know, all the the wk the sort of wrinkles get ironed out,
00:05:35
Speaker
um the story also begins to emerge about about what Saudi Arabia is about in the consciousness of Chinese travelers. So I'm really happy to see that, you know, whether it's, ah it's I mean, obviously, lone standing nine day Saudi only destination is wonderful to see.
00:05:54
Speaker
um But to see it yeah you in with Bahrain and Qatar as well. is also excellent. It it shows me that you know the people's impressions are being shaped about the destination, and that um slowly but surely with time, um Saudi at least is going to be becoming more and more aligned and sort of fit in with what what China is looking for.
Oman's appeal to Chinese luxury travelers
00:06:18
Speaker
I'm also happy to see that Bahrain is is being included. You know, just from what I look at every day is the social media side of things. Bahrain doesn't get much attention on social media.
00:06:29
Speaker
But you know um there's an expression in Chinese which is called dhaka, which is you go and you kind of take it off your list. um I hope that you know the interaction with Bahrain is a bit more than just going to dhaka, or just taking it off the the bucket list.
00:06:46
Speaker
But with time, um we'll also see more and more how people feel about Bahrain, and also from Bahrain side, ah more experiences may develop that are appealing for the China market. Yeah.
00:06:58
Speaker
What I also think actually ah ties in with the the podcast we did last week, where we also discussed a little bit of specifically about the destination of Oman.
00:07:09
Speaker
And ah from the Red Note Xiaohongshu analytics reports, we saw that there was a lot of mention of five-star hotels and more luxury kind of experiences.
00:07:19
Speaker
And here, lo and behold, even with the group tours um per day per person average is significantly higher than some of the other competitors in the Middle East. So again, this does definitely show that Amman is viewed as more of a luxurious destination and ah therefore the price point is in line with that.
00:07:41
Speaker
and Absolutely. it it seems like there's just more of an association with. And I think also this is a smart part on the part of Oman is that they've positioned themselves as you know not quite the same as as Qatar and UAE or Riyadh even, in that they are quite um more traditional, less sort of um fast-paced city, um more keeping to their roots.
00:08:06
Speaker
And I think that really resonates with China. and they They want something in that region that's, and I think we see this often with Jordan, but it is that ah China wants to connect with the Middle East.
00:08:19
Speaker
They're just looking for a safe and sort of reliable environment in which to explore the Middle East.
Cultural and historical interests of Chinese travelers
00:08:25
Speaker
um You know, Jordan, for for various reasons, that is difficult right now.
00:08:30
Speaker
But um I think Oman is very much also candidate for that kind of in-depth travel approach. connection with the Middle East and its ancient cultures and you know it's its heritage and so on.
00:08:41
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, speaking of Jordan, what what I found here quite interesting is that they have got a standalone itinerary for Jordan for nine days. And i must say, like I would actually love to go on a trip like that personally.
00:08:55
Speaker
Nine days is I mean, I've traveled to Jordan a few times before. Nine days is really a ah great amount of time that you need to spend there because there is honestly speaking, ah so much to see there.
00:09:09
Speaker
So to see them having a standalone destination for nine days, I think that's great to see in the market. um Another thing Jordan related is to see it's interesting that Now we're seeing more and more combined trips of Jordan, for example, in this case with Egypt, but there's also the packages out with Jordan combined with Saudi Arabia.
00:09:39
Speaker
um Whereas in the past, you'd normally have a Jordan and Israel combined trip, ah but due to the challenges that are there at the moment in that region,
00:09:52
Speaker
Now, it's kind of the pendulum has swung and other countries are teaming up with ah Jordan for these ah group tours. um So like this of Egypt and Jordan for 10 days for $3,000.
00:10:07
Speaker
I think that's, that's a, or it was an inevitable result ah of what's happening and the changes in the market. So it's quite interesting yeah to see that. And, you know, absolutely, just to take that lens of ancient cultures we were talking about, I mean, Egypt plus Jordan for the China market is just... And, you know, they can price it at that point of, you know, of $3,000 because you've got the pyramids, you've got Petra, you've got Wadi Rum, you've got Amman, you've got so much natural scenery and, more importantly, so much ancient culture.
00:10:44
Speaker
um that that kind of packaging really makes sense um on a very deep level for China. Yeah. And also, again, in line with what we were discussing in last week's podcast about the ah Chinese citizen and travelers' deep interest in the history of the Middle East, their interest in ancient civilizations, antiquity.
00:11:09
Speaker
And this is the last thing I'm going to say on this topic, is that it was very interesting to notice that Xinhua news agency, one of the main news agencies of China,
00:11:23
Speaker
was had coverage of the the story news of how they've now found ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in Wadi Rum of Jordan.
00:11:35
Speaker
And these hieroglyphics date back to more than 3000 years a go And while it was obviously so quite a bit international news, absolutely, I saw it in quite a few Western publications.
00:11:52
Speaker
But again, China was also very much sharing that information with their population. And there was clear interest in learning about this. So everything about like the traditional Silk Roads, antiquity, these are clearly very important trigger points for interest for Chinese outbound travelers to the Middle East.
00:12:16
Speaker
So the more and more discoveries that are made from historical perspective of excavation and in places in the Middle East, no matter what the destination is,
00:12:27
Speaker
that is just going to add more and more and more to their appeal.
Emerging tourism opportunities in Africa
00:12:31
Speaker
So, um yeah, the historians and ah archaeologists must continue to do the good job that they're doing.
00:12:40
Speaker
Exactly. that's the best um That's the best kind of branding for for Middle Eastern tourism um in the China market. So you were also last week attending the World Tourism Cities Federation conference in Hong Kong.
00:12:57
Speaker
um Tell us a little bit about that. Well, this was the first time I'd actually been um to WCF, WTCF. um And it was really interesting for me to get to know a bit more about the platform.
00:13:12
Speaker
So the talks that were scheduled were, you know, um a lot of it was around market research, new market research um released around, um you know, the recovery of the world tourism market, about the China tourism market, and also looking at sort of benchmarking Chinese cities in terms of their branding.
00:13:29
Speaker
That was the one leg of it, also with a few sort of speed dating um events with different um you know buyers and and destinations from different areas. But what was most interesting to me from a China outbound perspective was that WTCF provided a platform for smaller, especially African destinations,
00:13:52
Speaker
to come up to stand in front of a room full of um tourism decision makers from Hong Kong and from the mainland, and to talk in depth about the what their cities have to offer, what their destinations have to offer.
00:14:07
Speaker
And that was really heartening for me to see um as a South African. you know Often on the African continent, we have um sort of people and and countries and cities ah atomizing and doing their own thing by themselves, i' not necessarily always pulling together to kind of have a a singular brand voice around what is it that we want to provide present to China and ah you know what do we want to tell them about Africa.
00:14:34
Speaker
But here with WTCF, we had Zambia, we had um Ethiopia, we had Morocco, we had Tunisia, we had um ah just a ah whole spectrum of African nations who were there in person, who could tell people, you know, firsthand,
00:14:52
Speaker
ah in China and in you know the the greater China region, ah travel decision makers, industry decision makers, what it is that they their regions have to offer.
00:15:04
Speaker
So very, very encouraging to see that. um First of all, that you know China can at least get a small glimpse of what these places have to offer. And then also that you know the countries and the you know the the government decision makers can can know that you know there is a market, there is interest in China for what they have to offer, that they can start thinking about diversifying beyond just you know the good old American ah tourism market or the the European tourism market that's kind of driven their their their industries to where they are now.
00:15:37
Speaker
So all in all, I'm i'm extremely encouraged. I'm extremely happy to see that this exists. um I believe next year, the it's yeah it's the Fraquent Hills Summit.
00:15:48
Speaker
I believe it's going to be held in Beijing next year. And I think we will see, um hopefully, South Africa there this time around. Hopefully, we'll be able to convince the South Africans and Brand South Africa and Tourism South Africa that they need to be there ah to connect with ah various decision makers. and And as a side note, I was truly impressed to see the you know the the the caliber and the and the level of decision makers there. We had ambassadors. We had members of the European Parliament.
00:16:20
Speaker
We had mayors from um cities from, you know, from Fez to Ulaanbaatar to Budapest to the UK, the States. ah We had so many very senior people there.
00:16:33
Speaker
It just felt that felt like a really um important and sort of heavy and, know, had a real gravitas to it. You felt like there were big changes being made.
00:16:44
Speaker
for especially from my perspective, from from Africa's point of view. But it wasn't just limited to Africa. It was the EU as well. um And it's kind of an important moment, I think, given what's happening with ah you know certain countries across the across the Pacific from me, with certain leaders in the White House, that there is a need for more dialogue.
00:17:05
Speaker
ah There is a need for you know China and the rest of the world too to to get together and keep talking. And um you know whether you're from the US, whether you're from Africa, whether you're from Australasia, Europe, um keep dialogue open, keep talking about tourism, keep exchanging.
00:17:23
Speaker
So yeah, it was in short, and I've been talking about this for a long time, but it was a ah very inspiring, especially now in this current moment that we end with with politics.
China's role in global tourism discussions
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah, well, it sounds like a mini tourism Davos from the way you're describing. I mean, and I was also going to ask, ah but I think you already mostly answered that ah who were the other major cities ah that that attended?
00:17:49
Speaker
um And if you had literally mayors of the various cities and ambassadors, that that really does sound fantastic, especially, as you say, at a time like now to be having dialogue,
00:18:03
Speaker
I mean, do you also get the do you also get the impression that that while while this was an internationally organized event, do you also did you possibly get the feeling, because I'm reading it about this a little bit, from at least from the political view of things in the Western media,
00:18:22
Speaker
about how China right now is kind of portraying themselves as a steadfast, reliable partner for the future, considering the bit of um anxiety and yeah ah changes that are taking place right now. yeah Well, ah honestly, actions speak louder than words here. i I feel that platforms like these are a way for China to stand at the center um of
Live insights from Arabian Travel Mart
00:18:51
Speaker
of discussions around tourism, of ah really bringing everybody together.
00:18:56
Speaker
it wasn't it was not in such a way that you really felt that there was this overbearing presence of China in the room. yeah But um it really felt like a meeting of equals. um That was the what was the biggest feeling that I got from yeah from the Frequent Hill Summit.
00:19:13
Speaker
As for next week, just something I'd like to to highlight to those who are listening. um as of... Next week, Monday, well, actually, this week, Sunday, I'm flying into Dubai.
00:19:25
Speaker
I will be at Dubai and from the 27th late until the 30th late. i'm I'm flying out very, very early in the morning on ah May the 1st.
00:19:38
Speaker
So, yeah, um I look forward to seeing you know anybody who will be attending atm um I'll be setting up meetings, but whenever you have a gap or whenever there's time, we'd love to chat and meet up and talk about the China markets.
00:19:53
Speaker
Any questions that you guys have um about where China is right now? um how you can understand the China market more, talk to Chinese travel decision makers.
00:20:05
Speaker
um I'm happy to talk. Another point I would like to also just mention is, Michael, ah we will be doing a, our next podcast episode will be done live from ATM.
00:20:17
Speaker
So we'll be bringing you some of that ATM spirit in our next episode. Yeah, fantastic. Well, best of luck at the Arabian Travel Mart, Sean. Awesome. If you have any questions or comments about the topics discussed on today's show, you're more than welcome to send us an email at marketing at cconsulting.com.cn or you can drop us a message on LinkedIn.
00:20:41
Speaker
We're LinkedIn as Create Consulting. So yeah, thanks very much and we'll see you next time.