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China Tourism Tuesday Episode 27
12 Plays23 days ago
On Episode 27, we’re taking a deep dive into the newly released numbers from the October Golden Week holidays, from outbound travel stats and destination rankings to how domestic travel patterns have evolved this year. We’ll also look at the growing wave of Russian tourists visiting China, the renewed enthusiasm among Chinese travelers for Europe, and how Chinese educational tourism is transforming (or not?) under Trump 2.
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Transcript
Introduction to China Tourism Tuesday
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to China Tourism Tuesday, a discussion of marketing international tourism destinations in the China outbound tourism market. My name is Charles Albertain and I'm coming to you from Shanghai, China.
00:00:15
Speaker
Good everybody. My name is Michael Jones and I'm coming to you from Amsterdam.
Post-Holiday Marketing & Trade Shows
00:00:19
Speaker
Cool. So, Shol, we've got a bit of a interesting times just behind us with the national October China holidays.
00:00:28
Speaker
yeah And then also, yeah, in terms of the marketing environments, trade shows. Tomorrow kicks off the ITB Asia in Singapore, arguably one of the most important trade shows in the Asia market and obviously quite a strong Chinese contingent to that.
00:00:48
Speaker
um So, yeah, we'll certainly be at ITB Asia this week. So we'll see how things go there. And then three weeks from now, yeah, again, it's it's a bit of a crazy season. Three weeks from now, we've got WTM trade show in London.
00:01:06
Speaker
um And we'll also be there. And that's also going to be really interesting to see from the Chinese perspective for Europe, what is the interest, who's pushing the hardest. And yeah, so it's really exciting times ahead.
00:01:19
Speaker
Absolutely.
Country Branding at CIE Event
00:01:20
Speaker
And don't forget, we also have CIE coming up 5 to 10 November, the China International Import Export. Not quite in now wheelhouse of tourism, but still um still important for country branding either way.
00:01:34
Speaker
Totally. And yeah, we just wrapped up now the the National October China Holidays. um A whole bunch of information out on the Internet about the ups and downs and the latest trends and stuff like that.
00:01:49
Speaker
So yeah, let's ah let's go through a bit of that information and see what to come up with. OK,
Golden Week 2025 Travel Trends
00:01:55
Speaker
cool. So Golden Week 2025, two million people entered and exited China daily.
00:02:03
Speaker
um Over the entire, I think it was eight days, it's up from 1.87 million daily exits and entries in 2024. The big change here is Thailand has cooled down completely.
00:02:17
Speaker
um It's not really what it was. And I think we'll talk a bit more about what the Thai tourism authorities are trying to do to kind of, you know um I don't want to say take a defibrillator, but kind of jump start.
00:02:31
Speaker
jumpstart demand again. But yeah, Japan really riding high in terms of popularity. South Korea pretty much always strong. um Now, looking at just some, yeah you was it with an outbound market like China, you know, you always are going to find some some not ideal products. You know, there was some scandals and incidents with high-end custom tours in Europe. you know A couple that booked a pretty expensive um honeymoon package, thinking it was going to be a small a small sort custom-made tour. And basically, they arrived in Europe, and the guy who promised to take them around was gone, had basically taken off with their money.
00:03:18
Speaker
And so they ended up spending about $10,000 USD um with you know the upfront costs and then also having to book their own hotels in destination. Just all around
Tourism Quality Issues & Scandals
00:03:30
Speaker
a pretty bad experience. um So yeah, that even in a you know a well, arguably very well developed and competitive tourism landscape like like China, ah quality issues do persist. And especially, I think, in the rebounding outbound space.
00:03:47
Speaker
Just another little update from the Philippines. um 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Davao caused some issues for some outbound travel agencies, um who also took protective measures to make that their travellers were safe.
Growing Popularity of Japan & South Korea
00:04:05
Speaker
That's pretty much all the headline news from the past outbound travel trends from the past October holidays. Yeah, Michael, over to you.
00:04:17
Speaker
Well, I mean, so yeah you mentioned also, so again, so Thailand, yeah not doing the best. um Japan still riding the super high wave that they're on right now and South Korea.
00:04:31
Speaker
um I mean, I also see quite quite a bit of media coverage about the fact that Japan has also been reducing their flight costs. There's been a whole bunch of like discounted tickets to Japan.
00:04:44
Speaker
And I think that's certainly helped them go even further over the top. um Then there's also the trial basis now with South Korea for visa-free to, well, not visa-free, but visa easy visa arrangements for smaller group tours, which is apparently also resulted in something like a 20 to 30% increase in tourism today.
00:05:10
Speaker
So it's I suppose it's not only just the broad destination awareness and everything. and like ah It seems like the the China market is actually still nevertheless still looking for deals, looking for discounts here and there and stuff like that and to to really get things moving.
00:05:27
Speaker
Absolutely.
Spain's Air Capacity & Chinese Interest
00:05:28
Speaker
Absolutely. And then what ah what I also found fascinating, I mean, I've been watching Spain for quite some time. We've covered Spain a few times, especially with a particular guest on our previous China of Tourism Tuesday podcast series.
00:05:43
Speaker
um But I find it fascinating that today, or during the summer at least, Spain had 61 weekly direct flights between China.
00:05:56
Speaker
um And that is double the air capacity that they had pre-COVID. And I think that's mesmerizing, to be honest. I mean, i don't, other than other than Asian destinations, I don't know of many other destinations that have actually doubled their air connectivity since COVID, since pre-pandemic times.
00:06:19
Speaker
I think it's just incredible. And it obviously is part of the big reason why Spain is still getting a huge amount of Chinese tourism. um So, yeah, very, very interesting to show again about just how the nuts and bolts and mechanics of these logistics can really, like, result in good returns.
Chinese Student Travel Trends
00:06:39
Speaker
Absolutely. I mean, just speaking from someone who spends a lot of time on Red Note, it's every single, every second post from the October holidays, if it wasn't Japan or was Spain, and it was quite palpable, the excitement about Barcelona.
00:06:56
Speaker
um Yeah, and honestly, very heartening to see that long haul travel is is back um in the way that it is. Yeah. Yeah, and then I also see like also like changes with the the big big Chinese outbound tour operators. GZL also recorded increases to specific destinations.
00:07:17
Speaker
But Beijing-based U-Tour, they were also talking about the same as part of the the The trend has been going for quite some time now. ah Reduced group sizes, they the groups are now shrinking from 40 packs to 20 packs.
00:07:31
Speaker
And that is apparently very indicative, especially over the last national holiday. Most of the group sizes were smaller than before, but but at the same time also spending a bit more in the smaller groups.
00:07:44
Speaker
So it's quite interesting to see how yeah things are kind of going along their merry way. the The one report that I read quite recently, which I found somewhat interesting, was a report from ph Fliggy.
00:08:00
Speaker
And they had a report completely focused on student Chinese outbound travel. And what was... kind of not so interesting about that was that the destinations, the top eight destinations for Chinese students are pretty much in line with the general market.
00:08:20
Speaker
I mean, number one, they've got Japan. Number two, they've got Thailand. Number three, South Korea. Number four, Vietnam. Number five, France. Number six, Australia. Number seven, the USA.
00:08:32
Speaker
And then finally, Indonesia. I mean, those destinations don't really have much divergence with the overall. Yeah, absolutely. the it's It's interesting that it follows so directly in the the footsteps of sort of, I'm guessing what you're saying is more leisure travel, but um it makes sense that with more more familiarity comes more of a student studying tourism market growth.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. And and that's that's a point that I also thought about because, i mean, I see like the USA at number seven. I've also been chatting to some other companies, Chinese companies recently that focus on ah purely FIT travel, like really, really small groups or real free independent travelers.
00:09:22
Speaker
And they mentioned to me that the USA is still a very strong destination for them, ah which I find, again, quite... interesting with my conservative mind because I was just always under the assumption that with the geopolitical tensions in place, the USA would lose bit of its yeah interest.
00:09:44
Speaker
But but ah seemingly, the USA is still a very, very attractive um destination for Chinese travel, no matter what age you are. It is, and for students as well. you know the Just anecdotal evidence that I'm seeing from ah sort of young Shanghainese who want to pursue a post postgraduate um studies, the the experience for them is that um under Trump, going to study in the States is difficult.
00:10:12
Speaker
But if you get in, then it's really good. um ah but One thing you should know about the Chinese is that when it comes to education, um you telling them, no, don't try, it's very exclusive, does not put them off.
00:10:27
Speaker
and They definitely push very hard in education. So it's still very much like a seen as this this big um educational beacon, ah for sure, for outbound studies. Well, of course, you know China is, in terms of rankings,
00:10:41
Speaker
um is really getting up there. If you look at some of the university rankings, we can do i in a future episode, Michael, but if you look at some of the university rankings in terms of if you really go on to computer science, it becomes quite ah shockingly obvious that besides Harvard and um ah maybe Stanford, the remaining top 20 are all just Chinese universities. It's quite astounding.
00:11:09
Speaker
But that's ah that's a future episode, I think. Wow, that's pretty interesting.
Domestic Tourism Growth in China
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah. And ah the other thing I also, I mean, again, i I'm reminded of when when I was in Shanghai a few weeks ago.
00:11:25
Speaker
um It seems like, especially from the from the the stats coming out from the o October national holidays, is that ah domestic tourism in China still remains extremely strong.
00:11:37
Speaker
um And it seems that, I mean, naturally it's more affordable, it's more economical, it's naturally safe. um It seems to be quite quite a little bit of ah of a sticking point that there are still quite a lot of people who probably do have the means and they do have the savings to travel abroad.
00:11:59
Speaker
But they choose to rather put that off ah because of this slightly volatile economical situation. ah They rather just like sitting on their money for now and saving it for later.
00:12:12
Speaker
which Which is also, i mean, i think they there's a bit of a ah confusion in the market right now when it comes to Chinese spend. I mean, if you speak to people that are knowledgeable and you look at the stats for Chinese spend in in countries like like Spain, I mean, it's massive. it's It's really like per capita Chinese person is spending far more there than in other countries.
00:12:40
Speaker
than non-Chinese tourists. But then if you also follow like a few even Reuters reports and stuff like that about Chinese spend in other markets closer to home, like in Southeast Asia and East Asia or whatever, there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what the what the spend Chinese spend is doing there.
00:12:59
Speaker
Is it increasing? Is it decreased? Is it the same? There's just quite a bit of conflicting information out there. It seems that the Chinese ah on tourism numbers absolutely to Asia absolutely is increasing. It seems like ah this national holiday was a 30% increase over last year.
00:13:18
Speaker
But the spend is not necessarily growing in line. It seems to be kind of stuck. But then if you look at Spain, of course, a different part of the world, um very different. so So, yeah, I think we're still in a phase where there's still a lot of confusion in the market.
00:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, just to just to maybe put a bit of numbers, it's ah I can't speak too much about um you know spending and in Southeast Asia for Chinese tourists. But I think for a bit of um perspective, we can look at the the domestic travel industry.
00:13:51
Speaker
um so Over the eight days of the Golden Week, the October holidays, it just passed. 8.88 billion trips taken. And that is by 1.23 billion trips from 2024. So good growth being shown there in terms the spend. 809 billion RMB being spent. That's up 108.2 billion RMB year over year.
00:14:07
Speaker
um good growth being shown there in terms of the spend um eight hundred and nine billion r and b um being spent that's up hundred and eight point two billion um b year over year so ah The domestic space obviously showing a lot of and a lot of growth.
00:14:27
Speaker
you know
Middle East Tourism Potential
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah. And then I suppose also finally, one thing I'd also just like to chat a little bit about is about what has been happening in the Middle East. I mean, the last two days, it's been impossible to avoid the news ah for for those that have been on the moon for the last 48 hours.
00:14:47
Speaker
um Israel and Hamas have a ceasefire in place. Seemingly, the war has ended. um rolls Israel has received back all their alive hostages.
00:15:02
Speaker
um The Israelis, for their part, have released the political prisoners to to the West Bank and to Gaza. And so finally, after two years of the most horrific conflict, it seems to have come to an end now. I mean, we'll have to see what happens with the future peace plans and things like that for the future. But for at least now, it seems like the war has absolutely stopped.
00:15:28
Speaker
And one one area that we know fairly well of the country, the kingdom of Jordan. um I mean, i just find this this must be such a massive sigh of relief for the Jordanians, because i think what what people often, frankly speaking, i think most people in the world suffer when it comes to geography.
00:15:52
Speaker
Most people don't really know where everything is. If you look on the map, Jordan, um I mean, that they're right next to Israel. ah during the last two years of conflict, international tourism to Jordan has absolutely ah gone down. I mean, there's no doubt about it, whether it's from Asia, whether it's from North America and Europe, um it has slowed because out of safety concerns.
00:16:17
Speaker
Now, I mean, Jordan has proven to be completely and utterly safe this entire time. have been no incidents whatsoever. In fact, they've been so safe that all the neighboring Gulf states tourists have been traveling to Jordan. to so so So tourism from the Gulf states to Jordan over the last few years has absolutely increased.
00:16:39
Speaker
Because the guys were guyss and girls were looking for a break. They were looking for something vibrant. were looking for something fun. And they absolutely found that in the safety of Jordan. um But now that the ceasefire has come into place, ah yeah, that's my true wish and hope that that international tourism will increase to Jordan again.
00:17:02
Speaker
Because, I mean, frankly speaking, that they they really deserve it. It has remained an incredible tourism product, destination. I mean, what I found also quite fascinating was during the COVID period, Jordan, I mean, everybody was affected badly during COVID, of course.
00:17:21
Speaker
but But Jordan didn't kind of like sit on their hands during COVID. They actually started improving a lot of their products and increasing their tourism products. So when COVID came to an end, there actually a whole bunch of new cool activities and adventure ah tourism things that you could do in Jordan.
00:17:41
Speaker
So these guys, they they work really hard. to to ensure that they can deliver the best possible experience to international tourists. So, yeah, I think it's just really exciting times for them. And yeah.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. i just i think for the for the greater Middle East, or you could say maybe West Asia, or yeah however you want to call it, um really deserves the the tourism business that they will eventually get, I do believe, um in terms of If you look at Jordan and the you know the ancient history and the the the cultural heritage and depth that they offer, destinations like Iran as well, ah they hold ah just this fascination in the China market.
00:18:31
Speaker
ah People want to go, but it's obviously risky. it's it's kind of um not the place that that anybody who has a little bit of savings ah would go to. It's kind of like the you know these the the the kind of Shanghai intergenerational wealth rich guy who kind of hangs around um at ah at a craft beer bar on a Wednesday evening. He will be like, OK, I've been to Iran before because you know he you can afford the the top of everything.
00:19:02
Speaker
But it's not really something that people are considering like, ah They just they they feel like it's too it's too risky, it's too scary. They're worried about extra expenses that they might incur.
00:19:13
Speaker
So, yeah, it's ah but of course, I think, you know, it's it's it's hard to argue against that the the Middle East deserves an incredible tourism destination for every single country, pretty much.
00:19:28
Speaker
Yeah, totally. I mean, also, I mean, back to like specifically with Jordan again, I mean, Chinese chinese travelers have continued to travel to Jordan throughout the last year conflict, especially on the FIT side. There's actually been quite ah quite a good number of Chinese FIT travelers going to Jordan.
00:19:48
Speaker
But the The problem is the hesitation naturally was with the groups. and And understandably, the the groups are under quite a fair amount of ah pressure and control from the government.
00:20:00
Speaker
It is their job to keep their citizens safe. um and But for for some other reason, and i'm not for some other reason, for a historical reason, Jordan has always been packaged together with Israel.
00:20:14
Speaker
And during the conflict, there were a number of Chinese outbound tour operators that tried to brief refigure that of creating, for example, packages with Saudi and Jordan or Egypt and Jordan and things like that.
00:20:30
Speaker
And that that definitely was ah seeing some form of success. But the majority of Chinese outbound tour operators pretty much have been sitting on their hands, waiting just for the conflict to end, that they could just resume the old Israel Jordan packages, which which which I did find a little bit a little bit disappointing in in that sense, ah because there are other countries that you can attach to it.
00:20:58
Speaker
And I mean, I have very little doubt in my mind that with the Chinese tourists that do go to a combination of Jordan and Israel,
00:21:10
Speaker
um Jerusalem is ah big, big attraction point for Israel. But for the rest, I think Jordan pretty much beats them in terms of the Dead Sea experiences, Wadi Ram, Petra, Amman, etc.
00:21:28
Speaker
um So I think there was a bit of an opportunity lost there. But the conflict is seemingly come to an end. So it is what it is. And yeah, we'll push forward.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, touch wood.
China as a Destination for Russian Tourists
00:21:41
Speaker
um I do also want to talk about the you know the other ah maybe sort of um nation, shall we say a nation of ah affected by, should i put this, war and um military conflict is Russia.
00:21:59
Speaker
It's not a war. Yeah, a special military operation. Let's keep it at that. um China ranked as the second most popular overseas destination for Russian tourists for the summer of 2025.
00:22:15
Speaker
So we saw ah total of 900,000 Russian visitors in the first half of 2025, staying for an average of nine days. um Obviously, this is very much in line with um A lot of Chinese regional governments drives to get international inbound tourism up.
00:22:39
Speaker
They really are pulling rabbits out of all kinds of hats with this. um And they they are seeing some some good, just more general numbers for inbound visitors from all over the world.
00:22:52
Speaker
751,000 international visitors. international inbound visitors visiting during the October Golden Week holidays. Now, the official stats we're looking at over here say covering nearly 100 cities.
00:23:07
Speaker
um i doubt that. I think it's probably focused more on good old Shanghai and Chongqing and the big cities, is Beijing, obviously Xi'an.
00:23:20
Speaker
Shenzhen, Guangzhou, maybe. ah When I was in Chongqing recently, I took a little trip out there for a weekend. And I can tell you that it was insane to me to see how many international foreign tourists, just visibly speaking, that you could see we're visiting Chongqing. The city enjoys really strong branding, I think, especially with younger, um you know all the way from Gen X through to Gen gens z in terms of their branding on social media. It's got this very strong position as like a cyberpunk city, even though, you know, for me, ah it's it's cool. It's it's a very very strange city that kind of goes up and down, and it's it steps everywhere.
00:24:04
Speaker
um But I mean, honestly, I think there are more and cooler destinations within China. ah There are too many to mention. But I think for now, I really doubt whether it's only 100 cities, or whether it's as much as 100 But yeah, 535,000 entering visa-free. That's up forty the almost 47% year over year.
00:24:25
Speaker
And yeah, non-Chinese passport flight bookings for domestic travel growing over 30% year over year. So on that front, China is obviously pushing very hard um to inject more dynamism and you know growth into its its domestic tourism industry, especially inbound.
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah.
Growth in China's Inbound Tourism
00:24:47
Speaker
Now, tell me, when you were in Chengdu and the foreigners that you noticed there, and I might be putting you at to at a slight disadvantage here, but I mean, did you notice any Russians?
00:25:00
Speaker
Did you spot, I mean, like, well, i don't know if you would be able to spot Russian people. stopped to spot Russians. Yeah, as opposed to and Russian, same thing.
00:25:11
Speaker
um But I mean, did did you you think you noticed any or just? ah you Look, in in China, if you're traveling around China, you you encounter a bunch of foreign looking guys.
00:25:24
Speaker
um You most likely will Russian every now and again. um so i can But I didn't get the sense that it was overwhelmingly lots of Russians compared to, for example, Shanghai. Shanghai is also lot of Russians over here.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So so precisely, so the the last time we were hanging out together in Shanghai, um I distinctly noticed a lot of Russians in Shanghai.
00:25:50
Speaker
I mean, there was just no doubt about that. But what really it caught my attention, and and maybe it shouldn't, but but it nevertheless, when I went to Guangzhou afterwards, app in Guangzhou, I really noticed a significant amount of ah Russians as compared with a non ah non-Russian Westerners.
00:26:11
Speaker
um Yeah. I mean, i know that Guangzhou has always traditionally attracted ah fair large amount of Russians because of working in imports and exports, sourcing industries with all the factories. I mean, I completely get it, always got it But i was under the assumption that many of them had left during COVID, um which I think they did.
00:26:33
Speaker
ah So I think the ones that I spotted in Guangzhou, that they truly must have been real tourists. um And then I was also thinking about it. I mean, like, you know, frankly speaking, when you're living so, when you're the neighboring country with China,
00:26:48
Speaker
And you can go to so many countries on Earth, sure. But sure, I mean, what and a fantastic benefit to have China on your doorstep. I mean, in terms of city life, in terms of like the exactly what what like the more influencer type Russian consumers who would like to do, the nice restaurants, nice back backdrops for photos and stuff like that.
00:27:13
Speaker
I mean, its it's pretty hard to beat. ah let Let me just chuck in one last.
Conclusion & Contact Information
00:27:18
Speaker
Thank you, everybody, for listening. We look forward to seeing you at ITB Asia this week and three weeks on WTM London.
00:27:26
Speaker
Cool. If you have any questions or comments about the topics discussed on today's episode, you can feel free to send us an email at marketing at cconsulting.com.cn or you can search us on LinkedIn.
00:27:40
Speaker
You can find Create Consulting. We look forward hearing from you.