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China Tourism Tuesday Ep 23
14 Plays1 month ago
In today’s episode of China Tourism Tuesday (Ep. 23), we take you through some of the most important—and surprising—developments shaping outbound Chinese tourism right now.
We look at:
- The Thailand–Cambodia border tensions and how they’re impacting cross-border travel
- A new surge of Chinese visitors to India as visa access normalizes
- And our deep-dive report on how Chinese travelers on Red Note are engaging with African destinations—from West to East, Central to Southern Africa.
Find out which regions are winning attention, which products are trending, and where the next big growth opportunities may lie.
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Transcript
Introduction to China Tourism Tuesday
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to China Tourism Tuesday, podcast where we discuss marketing international tourism destinations to the China outbound tourism
Introductions from Charles and Michael
00:00:12
Speaker
markets.
00:00:12
Speaker
My name is Charles Pettain and I'm coming to you from Shanghai. Good everybody. My name is Michael Jones and I'm coming to you from Amsterdam.
Impact of Thailand-Cambodia Tensions on Chinese Tourism
00:00:22
Speaker
So, Charles, there's some interesting things happening in the Chinese outbound tourism market the past few weeks. i um I certainly didn't see it coming. Perhaps some of the other commentators saw coming better than I did. but Yeah, the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, just when we were all looking forward to a bit of extra stability in the world, this pops out.
00:00:47
Speaker
No. What's happening? Yeah, um I kind of caught the broad strokes of it. Jeez, man, tough. Five years for Thailand, eh?
00:01:00
Speaker
and Since COVID, they've kind of been not been able to kind of get a break. But ah yeah, there was the, you know, obviously COVID was disastrous for the China business to Thailand.
00:01:16
Speaker
Shortly after COVID ended, we had the situation with the the celebrity. ah I can't remember his name, but the guy who who got kidnapped to ah basically like a scam center over in Myanmar. And they rescued him looking very scared and sort with his head shaven after a few months. But they got him back, and that kind of tanked.
00:01:39
Speaker
Chinese tourism to Thailand, which which i mean not wasn't war or pandemic stakes, but still not not great in the realm of crisis comms. And now um we have the very strange you know relationship between the incumbent Thai prime minister and the the Hun family in Cambodia and the various power games. And China is obviously involved in in you know the Cambodian faction a bit more, and they've got assets on the ground in Cambodia as as part of their infrastructure projects.
00:02:17
Speaker
So you wonder whether it'll be allowed to you know flare up too much, um or whether it's a flash in the pan to kind of consolidate you know trust in in the ah the the younger Hun Sen Sun.
00:02:34
Speaker
um And then whether you know there's been sort of a show of power on either side, then China will kind of come in and mediate and calm everybody down. Hopefully that's the case, because both countries are so incredibly dependent on tourism that I don't think they can really afford to get into a war.
Thailand's Political Instability and Tourism Effects
00:02:54
Speaker
But then again, as we've seen, you know countries don't really get into it because they can afford it. Michael, what do you think?
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, totally. I mean, it's not like Thailand's ever been the model of political stability. They've had instability for decades now. um I mean, on the more fun side of things, in the past when they would have a coup, that was normally a great time for young FIT travelers to precisely book a trip.
00:03:21
Speaker
to Thailand because all the ticket prices were dropping price. And you know that if you're going to be in Koh Samui or Phuket, any kind of political disturbances are going to have absolutely zero impact on your leisure holiday.
00:03:34
Speaker
But that's more from the fun side. But I mean, obviously, when it comes to actual organized groups and tours coming out of China, I mean, what you mentioned previously about the Chinese celebrity being abducted last year,
00:03:49
Speaker
That resulted in, just as the news broke, I mean, I think it was the number, something like 30 charter flights were cancelled immediately. And while in this case with the the war, again, it's along the the border region, so it's not necessarily all the main tourist areas.
00:04:08
Speaker
But nevertheless, it creates a huge amount of uncertainty. um We understand that a bunch of mice, ah big mice groups have absolutely been postponed.
00:04:19
Speaker
All ones that were planning to kick in absolutely have been put onto the back burner. But there hasn't been like mass cancellation of flights or anything like
Japan's Political Shifts and Chinese Tourist Backlash
00:04:28
Speaker
that. so But it's just it just adds to the uncertainty and it doesn't really help Thailand at all. And yeah, hopefully this does get resolved ah really quickly because this Nobody really saw this coming. And it's, ah yeah, it's a problem. It's a real problem that needs to be addressed.
00:04:45
Speaker
um But yeah, we'll have to see what's going to happen in the coming weeks. These talks already have ceasefires already in place and things like that. But yeah, we'll have to wait and see what happens more along that.
00:04:59
Speaker
No, absolutely. And you know hopefully um the you know it'll just be a flash in the pan and ah and a symbolic kind of gesture. I mean, these are long he a long-standing ah disputes about temples and certain points.
00:05:14
Speaker
And it might just be it might be symbolic. it might even It might flare up into something more. We hope it doesn't. But yeah, like you said, Michael, we keep watching the situation. Yeah, and then ah just to pivot slightly, and I wasn't entirely sure but this whether to discuss this or not, but I think it fits in pretty well.
00:05:36
Speaker
So for for Chinese outbound tourism, naturally, the their biggest numbers are going to within their own region in a Northeast or Southeast Asia. um Naturally, Japan is top of the list. Thailand is very close. So, I mean, for in terms of popular Chinese outbound tourist destinations right now, it pretty much is Japan and Thailand. So, and Thailand's been struggling as we've just discussed with some of these, ah some of these stability issues.
00:06:08
Speaker
And, um, But then you think, okay, cool. Well, Japan is super popular due to the yen, the currency has ah devalued a bit, making it a more affordable ah destination for Chinese tourists.
00:06:22
Speaker
But then lo and behold, I read an article yesterday about the rise of a new very right-wing party in Japan, political party, who wants to make Japan great again.
00:06:37
Speaker
So a bit of a copy of the MAGA from the States. And um one of their pet issues apparently is foreigners. And it's not necessarily on immigration. that That's absolutely a part of it. For the first time in Japan's history, they've got to actually encourage immigration into Japan because of its aging society and to replenish its workforce.
00:07:00
Speaker
um But besides that, they're also talking about unruly tourists. They're talking about tourists that don't obey the local laws and regulations. They commit a lot of traffic violations. Basically, they ignore traffic procedures that they can get like the perfect shots of a particular town near Mount Fuji.
00:07:20
Speaker
And this is now going on social media and a lot of people in Japan are getting upset about about these um more unruly ah tourists. But the biggest source of their tourists right now are South Koreans and Chinese.
00:07:34
Speaker
And one does tend to follow on from that. Well, maybe there's also a slowly and small, at the moment, tiny, but there is starting to be a bit of a backlash, ah seemingly, from increased Chinese tourism to Japan.
00:07:51
Speaker
And I mean, I perfectly hope that this is not going to become an issue in the future, um because I, again, I would wholeheartedly support Chinese outbound tourism to Japan, that they can help mend the ties of the past and get a better understanding of one another.
00:08:09
Speaker
But if tourism is also going to lead to extra complications, then again, you then Again, it it makes the Chinese outbound tourism industry, again, different. It's changing. There are challenges popping up in places where um no one was expecting them.
00:08:27
Speaker
And um so,
India's New Tourism Exchange with China
00:08:28
Speaker
yeah, that that also becomes ah something to watch for the future to see how this is going to pan out over time, how welcome the tourists are going to be and how comfortable they're going to feel about going to these places. So, so yeah, things are absolutely in flux.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's as a South African who works in the China outbound tourism space, i I look at countries like Japan, have it on a silver plate, it seems. And they somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Now, look, I understand if people are you know they have their preferences about their laws and so on, and you know tourists can be you know a bit of a headache, or if they're not managed sustainably.
00:09:06
Speaker
And I think this is something we'll get to bit later in this episode, is Just how countries who have everything going for them can you know shoot themselves in the foot in um in a bunch of ways um and just lose out that you know the the the the sort of the peak of the Chinese tourism wave.
00:09:27
Speaker
i mean Japan right now has, for the past month or two, has really seen quite an influx and an increase in high-value tourism to Japan from China's side.
00:09:40
Speaker
So they've got everything going for them. um I hope that you know there's not too much of this that kind of hits the news and begins to suppress ah business for Japan.
00:09:51
Speaker
Because what on on another level, I also almost hope that they do. Because that means that that Chinese outbound tourists will look to other destinations and some of that um that tourism that tourist business will be spread out a bit more.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, and speaking of which, and this is the last little interesting trend that has been popping up in the last two weeks i would like to throw out in today's podcast, is the how India is opening up to China again.
00:10:20
Speaker
So for the listeners that have not known, it's been impossible for Chinese countries citizens to get tourist visas to India for a significant period of time now.
00:10:32
Speaker
It's been ah close to a year or two now. And also vice versa. um There was a bit of, as always, there's a little bit of animosity between the national government of India and China.
00:10:45
Speaker
And that's built all the way down, seeped all the way down to the tourism levels. A week ago, the Indian government announced that tourist visas will be able to be processed for Chinese citizens again.
00:11:01
Speaker
So that's the new frontier, the new excitement spots in the Chinese outbound tourism area. um A lot of the Indian operators, whether they be DMCs, big tour operators, or whether they be a hotel and resort owners, and then the actual ah government states, the museums and things like that.
00:11:22
Speaker
They are now definitely going to be sharpening their marketing tools to try and attract and get a nice big chunk of the Chinese outbound tourism share. They haven't had it for a long time. um Again, there's some animosities between the two countries on the government level.
00:11:40
Speaker
um But I think there will be a nice segment of the Chinese outbound market that will absolutely be interesting. interested in traveling to India. ah Besides the usual, like the the golden triangle um that most surahs are going for, there's also going to be quite a lot of interesting niche segments, especially in terms of wellness, yoga, probably so leaning a little bit more towards Chinese outbound female travelers.
00:12:10
Speaker
um So yeah, here's a whole new massive new market that's coming back online again.
Chinese Tourism Trends in Africa
00:12:16
Speaker
And it's going to very exciting to see what happens between India and China over the next 12 to 24 months.
00:12:24
Speaker
No, absolutely. I'm looking forward to see how that actually develops. It's quite a loaded kind of highly charged space, but we we definitely look to to see what happens. Michael, ah do you mind if I sort of jump into the some of the Africa analytics we've been done on RedNote?
00:12:41
Speaker
Please, let's go for it. OK. All right, so basically, we've been looking a little bit at RedNote, doing some analysis of how China actually sees Africa, the continent of Africa.
00:12:57
Speaker
um Now, I'm i'm taking and What we have done basically with this report is that we have looked at Eastern Southern Africa, Western Africa and Central Africa, four of the African Union's designations for that for regions of the African continent. And we have left out um Northern Africa because they tend to make up a fairly distinct cultural tourism kind of experience.
00:13:23
Speaker
And the the main experience is the main question actually has been to to try and answer you know the question, what does China think of Africa?
00:13:35
Speaker
And where do they go? What are they talking about in terms of like ah tourism conversations on Red Note? And um basically what we did is we we wanted to kind of allocate sort of, I don't want to say medals, but sort of first, second, third, fourth place to these four regions, just to see which region gets the most airtime on red nodes.
00:13:59
Speaker
Now, in the first place, I don't think that there's any surprises here, just because of its, purely because of its, the the regions that it covers is Eastern Africa. And that's quite a significant margin. so Their total views for all Eastern African nations on Red Note is 1.5 trillion, historically.
00:14:23
Speaker
well And that leads, let me just and me just talk about Southern Africa, which is followed which which follows Eastern Africa. It's 160.5 million views.
00:14:34
Speaker
So it's about 1 10th of East Africa's engagement. and just It's shocking how the the the brand deficits that exists between Eastern Africa and between Southern Africa. And we'll get to reasons behind this. But let me first just kind of double click on the Eastern Africa numbers.
00:14:50
Speaker
So no surprises. You got Mauritius, which by itself, Mauritius Tourism on Red Note racks up 119.8 million views.
00:15:02
Speaker
Visa-free access, the you know the luxury infrastructure, the weddings, all that. No surprises. Then you get to Kenya tourism. That by itself is carrying 479.5 million views You know that is goodness know, safaris, beach tourism.
00:15:20
Speaker
tanzania three hundred and thirty three point nine million views sanzibba serengeti You've got Madagascar, 52.9 million views. Ethiopia, 41.1 million views. Rwanda, million views. Uganda, just about everybody else out of the water when it comes to ah that in itself is and now it's it's enough to blow just to hold everybody else out of the water when it comes to Africa, I mean, Michael, just think of a tourism-like cluster for Africa made in heaven, just because they're so close to each other.
00:15:55
Speaker
It's quite sobering as as South Africans to just just get ah an idea of how much clout these places are pulling in. And ah to Kenya and to Tanzania and Ethiopia, even Rwanda's credit, they are pushing hard in the China market.
00:16:12
Speaker
Now, if you look actually at what are the experiences that are really ranking high, Kenya Safari, almost 51 million views, no surprises there. Madagascar whale watching, it's 43. Tanzania, Safari, 25.
00:16:28
Speaker
And also Mauritius whale watching, bit over 15 million views. So it it gives you a better idea of you know what people are actually looking
Success of Eastern Africa's Tourism Branding
00:16:39
Speaker
for. It it just shows you how much of ah a grip they have on wildlife with Red Note, which is, mean, as of 2025, where we are right now, will say with full confidence, Red Note is emerging as the most important social media network to reach outbound tourists or any consumers, actually, a good margin.
00:17:02
Speaker
Douyin is beginning to fall behind a little bit. There are some issues with commercialization, with the way the algorithm works. So that's that's my bit about Eastern Africa. Now, let's go to Southern Africa. where but just Just quickly, with Eastern Africa, I suppose, what is your gut feeling in terms of these huge numbers for East Africa?
00:17:25
Speaker
Is it out of particular interest, do you think, for the nature that is a specific number? to Eastern Africa and stories about wildlife and nature that's specific to Eastern Africa?
00:17:36
Speaker
Or could it also possibly be something along, at least have a bit of support from the fact that Eastern Africa, I mean, all the markets that you just mentioned, have for the longest periods been visa easier, at least at least let's put it that way, than the rest of Africa, than Southern Africa and Western Africa and Central.
00:17:58
Speaker
um It's just been easier to get visa for all the years already for for those reasons. And do you think it's kind of like that supports one another in that kind of a cycle?
00:18:09
Speaker
Or is it just really just standalone what you find in East Africa in terms of nature and wildlife that people find interesting? Well, look, I don't think you can really separate the two out at all because, i mean, the the the longstanding political connections between ah East Africa, you can go back thousands of years, really. um But that, the visa access, the political connections, the infrastructure projects,
00:18:34
Speaker
um the sort of very unambiguously ah friendly and almost undiversified, i don't want to get too far out of my skis here, but I would say that Eastern Africa has an extremely strong, relatively speaking to the rest of Africa, relationship with with China.
00:18:52
Speaker
That then lays the groundwork. I mean, for example, you you see a lot of milk tea brands in Kenya that you see on the streets here in Shanghai. I mean, they they're kind of lower end, but it just it just shows you that Kenya is really it's really becoming like a ah business-friendly, Chinese-friendly kind of spot.
00:19:12
Speaker
And then what happens is from that, you have you know you've got more flight connectivity, you've got more word of mouth, and That way you begin to get influences in people who just come, and then they begin to tell the story, and it's ah nothing succeeds like success. you know They begin to carry the brand, and it's like a thing that begins to independently turn on its own.
00:19:34
Speaker
um So it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy almost. Kenya has laid the groundwork in ah in a big way, and the the Chinese influencers have come. ah they've they've taken the experiences that are there in Kenya. And like we'll we'll be honest, I mean, Kenyan experiences are around wildlife, they're great and they're special. But then, I mean, relative to South African,
00:19:56
Speaker
you it's you'd be hard-pressed to make the case that there are things in Kenya that are just leagues ahead of South Africa. I mean, ah the it's it's difficult to say that.
00:20:07
Speaker
But still, the story has been told by Chinese in Kenya and in Tanzania and these Eastern African countries, and that's what's carried it. so The fact is that the story is out there, the influencers have put the posts out there, the views are up
Western Africa's Cultural Potential for Chinese Tourists
00:20:22
Speaker
there. um When I look at these numbers, all I can tell from that is that people have been there, and they've made viral content again and again and again.
00:20:31
Speaker
so Yeah. And then I suppose also like the the very long-term ah foundation, the I mean, absolutely. The Great Migration, um Serengeti.
00:20:42
Speaker
I mean, this stuff has been all over the CCTV nature documentaries for for decades, ah which has built up a super strong brand. And and And I found it quite interesting to hear about what you mentioned also about even the outer islands like Mauritius and Seychelles and Madagascar, Zanzibar, because that's also...
00:21:06
Speaker
i'm Because be beyond beyond the islands, also also on the mainland, but when you've got Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, I mean, Tanzania also sounds like a very, very interesting prospect. I read the other day that Tanzania, for for the first time, um tourism has...
00:21:29
Speaker
become the number one foreign exchange earner in Tanzania's economy. In the past, it used to be gold mining. So for the first time, tourism has now surpassed mining as income. So they're clearly going to double down on this. This clearly was an accident.
00:21:46
Speaker
This was obviously part of a plan. And they're obviously going to push that much harder. I've also heard from a lot of Chinese outbound tour operators that Tanzania has got the kind of like the...
00:21:58
Speaker
the the triple crown. they've They've got the Serengeti part of the the Great Migration. They've got Mount Kilimanjaro for hiking.
00:22:09
Speaker
And then they've got Zanzibar for relaxing. So they've really got like, yeah, the the three crowns to to top off what they have as an offering. So yeah, that's really exciting to see what's going to happen in that region. And from these numbers that you've mentioned now it's clearly just going to this has obviously formed a fantastic foundation foundation and I can't see how it's not going to just grow and grow and grow.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, and and you can just see from you know these the the the countries that have kind of gotten a spillover effect from Kenya and Tanzania, you know in Ethiopia and Rwanda and Uganda.
00:22:42
Speaker
and its That's just the nature of tourism is that people package in more, especially China, they'll package in more countries. They'll package in as much as they possibly can. So that that brings us to the second place, Southern Africa. It's popular, but it's not that it doesn't have that kind of clustering effect that Eastern Africa does.
00:23:01
Speaker
So Southern Africa, a total of 160.5 million views. And the way that breaks down, obviously, it's fewer countries, ah low populations, of course.
00:23:15
Speaker
South Africa, 120, basically million views. Namibia, 31.8. Botswana, 4.9. million views naabia thirty one point eight botswana four point nine um If we look at the popular experiences, South African penguins, 380,000 views, self-driving in South Africa, 135,000, Namibia's quiver tree forest, 45,000.
00:23:40
Speaker
What kind of makes me want to tear my hair out is that South African safaris ah this must be a mistake or a glitch in in this data set, but I 1,600 total views for South African safaris as a topic.
00:23:57
Speaker
um Let's compare that to Kenya, 50.8 million. Yeah, I'm... ah it's so It's disappointing, obviously, but, you know, ah with the Great Migration, like you said, Michael, it's it's hard to to compete with that.
00:24:13
Speaker
But... Still, we we South Africa should be pushing a bit harder. We've got great experiences to offer and we should we should really market that a bit more. Yeah, no totally.
00:24:24
Speaker
um And this 100% reminds me of a meeting I had with ah a Shanghai finance gentleman a few years ago who wanted to go on uber-luxury trip to Africa. And he was absolutely adamant about ah Eastern Africa.
00:24:38
Speaker
And then I said to him, but have you even considered Southern Africa? And he was like, no. And I was like, why not? He says, because in Eastern Africa, I'm absolutely guaranteed to see all the animals that I want.
00:24:48
Speaker
Whereas in Southern Africa, not guaranteed. And I was like, yeah I'm not sure you can use the word guarantee. ah but but But yeah, that that was like the thinking that that was absolutely stuck.
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. For sure. it's It's, yeah, ah difficult to to compete with just the clout of that Eastern African wildlife Space.
00:25:14
Speaker
Now, OK, third place, Western Africa. I don't think there's any surprises here. 72.5 million views. ah Not a classically well-known tourism destination for for China.
00:25:29
Speaker
Still very much up and coming. If we break down the numbers, most of this actually just comes from Nigeria as one country, 64.1 million views, followed by Guinea, 6.6 million, Gambia, 1.5 million, and then Lagos City Tourism makes up about half a million views.
00:25:49
Speaker
A notable mention, Goree, the slave island of Senegal, it's about 10.4 thousand views. So, I mean, great potential in in Western Africa, I mean, in terms of cultural output and and just crazy stories to tell, and and legends, and art, and and scenery, and food, and so on.
Visibility Challenges in Central African Tourism
00:26:13
Speaker
It's probably, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more interesting place in Western Africa, but just for a number of reasons which are probably bit beyond our scope here today. ah High potential but low awareness in China.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I see West Africa is becoming more and more popular with ah European travel um and absolutely also acting accordingly. They're putting in a lot more hotel infrastructure now, a lot more resorts and hotels that are being developed in West Africa, particularly for these markets.
00:26:44
Speaker
And yeah, I have no doubt that once it starts hitting a bit of a critical mass out of the European markets, then the Chinese market will also start following. So I think that's definitely on the horizon for them.
00:26:59
Speaker
Fourth place, Central Africa. Now, this is a this is a geographically big, but not very you know diversified in terms of countries. it doesn't cover nearly the scope of of Eastern Africa or even Western Africa.
00:27:14
Speaker
So we get about 96,100 total views for Central African countries. And this is because, in many cases, you you will search a country in Central Africa, like maybe the the the DRC, and and nothing will nothing will come up.
00:27:32
Speaker
um it's you You won't find any actual hashtags associated with it. There might be sparse posts here or there that that the algorithm doesn't sort under a certain hashtag, or that they don't mention a hashtag.
Emerging Trends in Chinese Outbound Tourism
00:27:47
Speaker
But what we do find is that Cameroon twenty seven 27.7 thousand views and angola around 5 400 views so not much um again you know we can talk about culture we can talk about music with with angola and so on ah The awareness is growing, but it's just not it just hasn't been documented yet. People just haven't gone and made the the content about it yet, which will go viral at some point. And you know the ah the incredible cultural outputs of these regions will be captured at some point. Just historically, it hasn't happened yet.
00:28:30
Speaker
Now in Cameroon, ah we do see one standard experience. It's the Mount Cameroon, which gets about 2.6 thousand views. Still extremely underrepresented, but, you know, incredibly rich geographic and cultural assets.
00:28:45
Speaker
So, yeah, we hope that it changes in the future. For Central Africa, did anything pop up under the category of sports? Under the category of sports, so what we've done over here is we've just we've sorted the whole data set only under travel content. So we wouldn't be picking up on sports unless we ran a separate analysis for that.
00:29:09
Speaker
But i'm sure you know I'm sure it'll change once you once you run it through different sort of categories. yeah I'm just wondering if maybe in the Cameroon, if they hosted a table tennis, um, competition like they did in Durban or, or something like that, that really pushes up the numbers in a spike in one very a unique location, but probably not yet. Okay, cool. That's really interesting.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's, uh, it's been bit of an eye opener. Um, unfortunately to see how far Eastern Africa is ahead of us, but with, with good reason. You know, they've been investing heavily in South Africa is still a very much invested in the European and U S markets. So it's a, it's an innovators dilemma problem really.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah. And show, when will our listeners be able to access ah this report? It'll be out by this Friday. Okay, cool.
00:30:06
Speaker
So everybody who wants to grab a copy. You can grab it from our LinkedIn page or from our website. yeah And also like to hear everybody's comments on that. Yeah, Pierce, I mean, I think this is also pretty timely. and The last few days I've been following a and following a overland truck safari group, a Chinese group that's been traveling through Eastern Africa.
00:30:29
Speaker
And it's a Chinese group. And then they've got their local East African guides. and is just going swimmingly. um it's It's actually quite enduring and encouraging to see how much that these Chinese tourists are enjoying.
00:30:46
Speaker
ah And again, this isn't luxury travel. This is roughing it little bit with Overland. ah trucks and camping, staying in tents and cooking food together around the campfire and things like that.
00:30:58
Speaker
And ah the Chinese groups are absolutely loving it. Even when there's ah hiccups every now and again of of a tire being punctured and they've going to replace and they've got to find some other activities to do everybody's going according it to very well and enjoying the whole process.
00:31:16
Speaker
to the degree that I've even been seeing um photos of some of the local guides doing yoga with some of the Chinese clientele when they do a stopover. in So they're doing like yoga out in the pure nature and loving it. um And that's obviously not part of the offering. That's just something that just, yeah.
00:31:40
Speaker
popped up as an activity to do that day. and And everybody's just engaging with it very well. I mean, just just to see Chinese tourists engage with ah these African tour guides and really, really thoroughly enjoying it and really engaging, communicating as much as they can with whatever levels of English that they have.
00:32:01
Speaker
they are using. So, yeah, I think this is a beautiful, beautiful future of the industry to watch for Africa and the Chinese outbound tourism. No, absolutely. um Like you said before, an incredible economic driver, something that's going to be, it just creates an incredible spread of jobs for local communities. And I think as we both know, it's sorely needed in, especially in South Africa as well.
00:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Cool. That's a wrap, I think. If you have any questions or comments about the topics that we discussed on today's show, please feel free to reach out to us at marketing at cconsulting.com.cn or you can hit us up on LinkedIn at Create Consulting.
00:32:44
Speaker
We look forward to your feedback.