Transcript
Speaker: My name is Michael Jones. I'm speaking from Amsterdam at 7 a .m. Good afternoon, everybody. This is Charl Albertyn from Shanghai, China, and it's now 2 p .m. So, Charl it's ah Tuesday.
Speaker: 2pm. Tell me what has happened in the China outbound tourism trends of the last seven days or so? Yeah, so we've got some new um border crossing stats out. A total of 610 million border crossings in 2024. Increase on of about 44 % year on year. Now that's a bit of a murky number because we don't know how much of that was actually ah leaving Greater China, not just going to Hong Kong or Macau, and how much of it was long haul, but the numbers up by or nearly 50%. So that's that's all good, generally speaking. Now there was a bit of ah ah another news headline that there was a bit of a PR crisis for Thailand tourism recently,
Speaker: with Chinese tourists but it looks like year on year the number is fine for Thailand and Chinese are arriving in Thailand it's 9 .3 % up week on week whereas the Russia, South Korea, Malaysia, India markets decline week on week so it looks like it's strengthened tourism safety visa free policies you know Thailand's obviously been doing their bit to strengthen the perception ah in the China market. Also, in 2024, we've got domestic tourism trips out, the numbers out. 5 .6 billion domestic trips made. The predominant growth here was from urban residents. They got a year and year increase of 16 .3 % and urban residents just at a 10%.
Speaker: So yeah domestic tourism is doing well. then yeah It's interesting to see that the United Nations has declared that global tourism in 2024 has recovered to pre -pandemic levels, but that is certainly not driven by China, and just from a volume point of view. and you know They said the number of international tourists ah globally in 2024 reached 1 .4 billion.
Speaker: Now from a volume standpoint China isn't quite back to the pre -pandemic levels quite yet. Good news in connectivity is that as of 21st of January we have a a new flight route from Beijing Dashing to Casablanca by Royal Air Maroc.
Speaker: Obviously a big win for one of our partners that we work with in the China market, which is Morocco National Tourism Organization. And also on the 19th of January, we saw a new direct flight coming from Shanghai to Casablanca by Shanghai yeah Shanghai Eastern or Shanghai Airline, sorry.
Speaker: So that is all for the new flights. and then so that That's pretty interesting also. quickly i mean i mean We saw but as about a week ago, Morocco Tourism released that they had achieved 17 .4 million inbound tourists for 2024, smashing their goal by about one or two years. And it now makes Morocco the most visited destination um in Africa. So yeah, that's really interesting how this is also going to help them with more direct connectivity with China. And ah yeah, so it looks like Morocco is really on clan. Yeah, and it's visa free, which is I mean, it just makes it so much easier for people to especially wealthier tourists who like to to do last minute of trips. They like to not have to worry about visas. And if there's a direct flight, all the better.
Speaker: Then just one last final story. is ah yeah Fiji is looking at some strong recovery markets some strong recovery numbers in the China market. reaching They've just reached 56 % of 2019 levels and are up 17 % compared to 2023.
Speaker: So yeah, Fiji is is targeting quite a bit of new Chinese growth, especially through the cruise industry that's that's growing quite a bit from the the eastern seaboard. So that's all for the new stats headlines. I think we can yeah we can chat a bit about that as well. Yeah, that's really interesting actually so far. i mean It's just great to see the new numbers coming through. obviously it's It's going to be Chinese New Year holiday now soon, so things are going to definitely be a bit of a lull in information over the next two weeks. But yeah, so all the people out there, happy Chinese New Year. Yeah, happy New Year of the snake. So Michael, you were in FITUR recently. How did that go?
Speaker: Yes, so it was my first time that I attended FITUR Madrid. a First time ever and I must say it was a fantastic show. It was really, really good. Obviously a little bit more Spanish -speaking -centered, so naturally Spain themselves, the host country, that had a massive and really impressive presence at FITUR Also, naturally, the South American countries were very, very well represented. And loss of lots of color, lots of noise, lots of excitement. I mean, it was real festive in that sense.
Speaker: From the southern African point of view, Namibia had a big presence there. They were quite strongly going quite strong. Lots of DMCs, they're also representing or including products from Namibia and Botswana and Zambia. East Africa, super strong, with Kenya and Tanzania really going hard on those markets.
Speaker: then what was interesting for myself, because I don't see that too much in other shows, but West Africa was very, very strong. The likes of Sierra Leone, Cameroon, the Gambia. mean, as the one organizer told me, there were like countries that ah he honestly had not even really known of before. um there were West Africa was really strong, and that was great, great to see.
Speaker: North Africa naturally, well, not naturally, but they were incredibly strong. Morocco Tourism Board having a really large booth there. Tunisia was very strong. Egypt was also very, very big and engaging there.
Speaker: So that was interesting, especially from the perspective that, well, again, for the China Advent tourism market for Egypt, um in 2024, they received 300 ,000 Chinese tourists. Pre -pandemic, they were receiving a million Chinese tourists. But what I find fascinating is that Egypt is gunning for 3 million tourists by 2028.
Speaker: So they very ambitious from the China market. I was speaking to a fantastic Egyptian resort group and they told me that no less than 60 % of their total overseas market is Chinese. Yeah, that I can imagine. That's like, that's very encouraging. Naturally, Middle Eastern countries were very, very well represented especially leading the way Jordan tourism board
Speaker: countries like Saudi Arabia. overall, they were really strong. So, I overall, again, it it was a fantastic show. It was a real eye -opener. It was, like I said, the first time I've been there. Definitely going there next year again. But I do want to mention one last thing about FITUR which I found quite striking, actually.
Speaker: that was about China's national pavilion under the name of Nihao China. yeah Now, you know, Charl as we know, China with a super long history of more than 5 ,000 years, incredibly rich and strong culture, arguably of the most advanced homegrown technology in the world.
Speaker: And then naturally also just as a tourism destination, a very beautiful country, very friendly people. Now, all of these elements that how we understand and know China, that was not on show at the Nihao China stand at Fittoor. If one had to sum up in one word, their presence was uninspired.
Speaker: on all levels. maybe a little bit more on the hospitality and warm welcoming part, I hence the name, Nihao China, that was a little bit there. But for the rest, it was quite, quite unimpressive, I must say. And if China is really serious about attracting many more foreign tourists, they they really are going to have to up their game.
Speaker: Yeah, i'm I'm quite curious, what which exact products and and sort of angles were they promoting in FITUR? Yeah, so they definitely had some great side of like events. They had like a whole focus on Chongqing, on Sichuanese food, um things like that. but but But I those are more like smaller events on the sidelines. I I mean, just to start off with, their their actual booth itself was just, well, very dated. No crazy LCD screens like you found with the Middle Eastern national pavilions. um No real massive show of force of technology. Just just again, just it was really standard, just very, very standard.
Speaker: And that was striking for me because you are surrounded by these other national pavilions, which are truly like all inspiring, like breathtaking. yeah And and that that's how I feel about China. China is a breathtaking or inspiring place. one had to, I I always think of, for example, the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the opening ceremony was it just captivated all the audience around the world. It was a real show of strength, a show of force, a show of culture, a show of history, but with beautiful humility and smiles and welcoming. That was just, for example, just and and a crazy, impressive show, one of my favorite Olympic openings ever.
Speaker: So the this was just completely lacking at what they had at FITUR It'll be interesting to see what they do at ITB Berlin in March and then at the other the big shows ah later on in the year. But so yeah, and just i say I think they just really could do much, much better on all of those fronts.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's interesting. I wonder if maybe you know the the inbound promotion efforts of of the Chinese tourism authorities need to maybe get a bit of a feel of the of the lay of the land and what actually works. I'm not sure how sensitive they are to to feedback and and so on on in terms of actual products and what people are looking for in China. I've also seen that sometimes they can maybe, you know, they cost quite a ah broad net and they're not very specific, but maybe they'll they'll learn the ropes as as time goes by. the odd quite They are quite new to
Speaker: the the efforts that they're now putting with visa -free policies and so on are quite new. So we'll we'll watch the space, but it's interesting that you hear that. By the way, one little stat that I forgot to mention was um the longest direct international flight from China is upping its frequency. So that is from Shenzhen to Mexico City.
Speaker: is now increasing to three weekly flights, that's starting from February 20th. So um that's from that's China Southern who's flying that and operating it between China and Mexico. So surely going to be a ah good boost for tourism between China and Latin America at least. That's really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah, well, obviously one of the big things last week and especially you the last two weeks, but the your whole ah fears of TikTok being shut down and Apparently, a lot of people are sliding over to Chinese social media of Xiao Hongshu, better known as Red Note. You've got a bit of experience in that and you've got maybe something more specific about it. Tell us a little bit of your experience with ah with what happened and how and where.
Speaker: Well, no the as soon as the the looming band sort of kicked in from the state side, you saw all these, I found it quite funny, because you had this initially had this flood of Americans who, because you can download red notes of any app store globally, which is quite handy.
Speaker: So people initially the Americans downloaded it and they they started calling themselves TikTok refugees and basically taking all of their TikTok content and just plugging it into Red Note to make sure that it stayed safe in case the ban came into effect that they wouldn't lose all of their Content and it was the craziest experience because I'm i'm quite an average red node user and it's this very it's Absolutely. It's it's an elite sort of first -tier city ah very female user heavy kind of platform
Speaker: The content is very much focused on, on you know, the earners and sort of um university educated Chinese people. I mean, Douyin is more mess mass urbanites and then Kwai Shou is kind of like more of the rural kind of content. so Xiaohongshu is like this this top top. A lot of international Chinese people also use it as their Instagram. And then suddenly I just saw the algorithm go completely funny. um I think it was the the Friday of that weekend. I think it was last weekend, yeah.
Speaker: and suddenly just started seeing all these these foreigners kind of crashing into the app and starting to upload their content and um then it caused this viral sort of, I don't know, this frenzy of ah engagement on Xiaohongshu, people moving over to Xiaohongshu in China, especially to see all these foreigners who are but coming over. And it was quite funny because some of them would kind of post a simple selfie and say, Nihao China, and then hashtag TikTokRefugee, and then we get something like 100 ,000 followers from that.
Speaker: So it was a crazy, crazy weekend. that Obviously, they've all left now. They've all just said, oh, sorry, there's not enough space on my phone for this app. And TikTok isn't getting banned since they've all gone. But yeah, I had a good weekend with my personal account. I accounts i got also got about 10 ,000 new followers just of a few few videos I made, kind of funny videos.
Speaker: Yeah, just about all these kind of disparaging these new tech talk refugees like I've been because it's kind of unfair because I've been working while for about since I was 19 in first university on my Chinese and my HSK.
Speaker: And all my visa troubles and everything I've had to do, well, not that it's difficult in China, but, you know, I've i've sort of given my pound of flesh to this country and yeah they suddenly show up without a word of Chinese and they get a hundred thousand followers.
Speaker: So I kind of ranted about that a bit and that got some good traction. And then surprisingly Chinese people um like it when foreigners kind of act a bit pathetic on social media and bemoans and things. And so yeah, i got I got some good followers from that.
Speaker: And they, they and to be honest, they quite like it when you're just authentic. And because, yeah, in their everyday lives, and this is a brand, this is a mistake that many brands make on Chinese social medias. They come at it from a very Western point of view. And on, especially on YouTube, we love to have and the podcasting format as well.
Speaker: which is maybe skews a bit more to a male demographic. We love to have you know stats, insights, the the the know-how of how to you know how to do something or how to understand something.
Speaker: Now in China, if you take that mindset to Chinese social media, that doesn't work um because that you know your your average Chinese social media user who makes the consumption decisions skews primarily female, number one. And number two, just ah the Chinese population that's still working at least, who hasn't retired as ah as a rule is,
Speaker: is overworked, over -educated, over -stressed, over -polished. They don't want to hear anything that's going to be you know an educational, difficult thing for them to digest. They don't want to be preached to. They they just they just want to hear something that's that's kind of not polished and quite authentic. and And yeah, not to not to information dense. So that's that's that was an interesting little learning that I picked up from. Yeah, because I didn't know a lot of these, the the content that was in out to there was no, no real editing done. No real filters, no real memes or sound effects or, you know, high budget spent just very, very low fi kind of stuff that was set up and got people's engagement because it was new and fresh and engaging.
Speaker: That's really, really insightful, actually. I mean, I certainly learned a bit about this. um I mean, the the last things that I also just wanted to discuss today was i mean pretty much similar, but different to what you're talking about now. And that's also just about humility.
Speaker: had a great experience just over a week ago where we organized some media influencer engagements for Centara Hotels and Resorts. Centara is Thailand's largest hospitality group. And and through the experience, where we had to deal with a pretty ni and good media, lifestyle, tourism, business media. But we also had quite a bit of engagement with some influencers. And the one influencer that really stuck out was a ah Hong Kong lady, her name is Hilda Time, spelled T -H -Y -M -E.
Speaker: that's also the handle she uses for on Facebook and Instagram. i She's really got a really strong background in the culinary arts. She studied at one of the elite chef schools in France, apparently the only Chinese lady to ever complete it there. She served President Macron of France before So when I saw this profile about her, I did have a bit of fear that it was going to be a bit of a kind of like prima donna kind of attitude. But I super professional, super like both her feet firmly on the ground, has humility, just just an absolute pleasure, an absolute pleasure to work with.
Speaker: And myself and the team, we just really, really enjoyed that. So she she was yeah just fantastic. I couldn't praise her more highly. that was a really good experience. And the reason why we had invited herself and other influencers and other media ah was to talk about Centara Hotels and Resorts expansion into the family -friendly, children -friendly hospitality. Now, as a father of two children, I can assure you that this is ah a wonderful segment in the market that is desperately needed. So, hats off to Santara. I mean, they're just a part of it, they're launching now. Well, they have launched the Centara Mirage Lagoon in Maldives, which is very family -friendly.
Speaker: and they're going to continue, and they've already got three properties under the kind of family -friendly segment. And this is really, really strategic in my opinion, because, I mean, again, as a father, travelling with young children, most of the places that I've been to are not really equipped for it. And it actually still, your holiday still becomes even more stressful, because they don't really have the facilities to take off, look after kids and things like that.
Speaker: Or at least it's like they're all like some danger points kind of thing that you could be worried about the whole time. So it makes it really difficult. So congrats to Centara I that this was going to be really, really a great segment to be in. yeah, that was pretty much the, that was pretty much my last seven days. um Is there anything else that ah you found interesting or we would you like to tell about?
Speaker: Yeah, no, it's it's it seems to me like the the family travel segment in China as well is just this, it's ah it's a very high potential um market and you can obviously see a lot of advertising dollars here in China or advertising R RMB's going towards specifically targeting. I I had to if i had to give you like a showreel of all the ads that I've seen in the last week, whether it be on social media or in my elevator or on the subway, it's for it's for hearing aid devices and it's for family friendly restaurants and um ah special like AI powered learning tablets for for kids.
Speaker: that's And ah yeah, maybe some some medications for older people. But the yeah, the advertising spend is just going increasingly, as you can imagine probably, in China towards um old people or ah older retired people and families because that's where the majority of consumption is flowing towards in in China especially. um So that's that's pretty interesting that Centara is growing more into that space.
Speaker: yeah.
