Transcript
Speaker: Good everybody and welcome to our first episode of our new show, China Tourism Decoded. My name is Michael Jones and I look forward to decoding China outbound tourism market with my esteemed co-hosts.
Speaker: Hi, my name is Alfred Lee. I'm the VP of Quid Consulting. I'm in charge the AI marketing strategy. Hi, my name is ah is Antonio and I'm in charge of the Spanish, the South of Europe market and also Latin America.
Speaker: Yeah, great. So what we're going to do today, today we're going to run through some statistics about the current October national holidays, the Golden Week holidays for Chinese outbound tourism.
Speaker: And then after that, we will um be discussing directly with ah Alfred about this wonderful AI um report that he made ah that focuses on the October national holidays, ah which will be quite interesting. So without further ado, let's just jump into a bit of a discussion about the actual numbers and and the trends that are happening currently right now live.
Speaker: um So I don't know what ah tidbits of information that you guys have found. I mean, I found some interesting things ah ah while preparing for this. um one of the One of the statistics that really struck me um was, again, about about China's scale So, um for example, Shanghai Pudong Airport is seeing an average of 107,000 people per day.
Speaker: um Guangzhou Bayun Airport and Beijing Capital Airport are both doing about 55,000 people per day. But mean, for Shanghai Pudong, that's... ah that that's pretty impressive, I must say. i'm I'm not entirely sure if there's any other like Western airports that compare with that, but but that would be like quite interesting.
Speaker: um I've got a whole bunch of other things here, but I would also like to hear from you guys, Antonio and Alfred. um Have you come across any interesting information which is not necessarily in the news or elsewhere or any trends that you've found that has become quite prevalent um for this October national holidays?
Speaker: Yeah, so from Dai, just so news about Qunar. Qunar is one of the major OTAs in China that they just released the the in beginning of the national holiday. said that the more than 2,000 kilometers long distance ticket that booking has increased 40% during the national holiday period.
Speaker: And well will let's um so that's quite compared with the same time last year. That's a quite big difference. It's 40% for the more than 2000 kilometers. So that's basically that's, you know, from Beijing to Guangzhou, that distance.
Speaker: or even further, like more than, you know, travel to to Japan. you It's a longer distance. So it's,
Speaker: um you knowt know, all the statistics show that the long distance or mid-range that's a flight has increased dramatically during the Chinese national holidays.
Speaker: Wow. And Antonio, what have you come across? Well, I was looking at some data from trip.com, right, for the bookings for for for this golden week.
Speaker: And it seems that Spain is number two in in in Europe, ah behind Italy and in front of the UK. With just looking at Barcelona, for example, an increase of 145% on the bookings. I'm just looking this right now. Madrid, 124%. Sevilla, 118, but also places that um that we're not really on the radar up to now, like Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia, um that is growing demand, Palma de Mallorca also, So a lot of ah lot of increases and this kind of goes in line with um what we had discussed earlier, which is that 44% increase of um traffic, of airline traffic between Spain and China up to the month of August. So this is not including this period. So that's quite interesting. And then there's also another thing that I've been looking at. I've been seeing some details, but I'm i'm looking
Speaker: Once once the the holidays are finished, we can really see. But it seems that the pattern of bookings is changing a little bit in the sense that people are starting to book outside of, now you should book from the first to the eighth or the seventh. But people are starting to leave a little bit earlier, come back a little bit earlier, or come back a little bit later.
Speaker: So a little bit more flexible, which by the way, is one of the goals of the new five-year tourism roadmap, the the business the plan for for tourism in China. One of the objectives is to flexibilize the dates in which the Chinese leave. So try to not be just on the golden weeks, um but flexibilize those those those dates, right? So quite interesting. Let's see, once we have all the data, let's see how that how that is confirmed or not.
Speaker: Yeah, and then as we'll touch on, ah ah Alfred will enjoy this, as we'll touch on with aeri AI report recommendations a little bit later. um Surprise, surprise, ah the short haul favorites and therefore the favorites for Chinese outbound has been the usual suspects, ah Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur.
Speaker: and specifically Singapore, which the listeners will hear a little bit more about a little bit later. um Thailand, despite the flooding, is doing very well. They've expected to receive about 250,000 Chinese tourists over the extended holiday that they've got this time around.
Speaker: um What I did find interesting both interesting and a little bit confusing at the same time was Tongchung. They showed that um there for them specifically, for the organization, multi-country trips are up 65%. The average trip 2.8 countries.
Speaker: the average trip is two point eight countries um Now, this is obviously at a time when the the biggest narrative coming out of the China market right now is about how ah Chinese ah outbound tourists are doing less multiple country destination trips and focusing more on one and going for the whole in-depth experience and things like that.
Speaker: um But at least for Tongchim, this shows a different narrative. um So I think that's something that I found absolutely quite interesting.
Speaker: um What also found what was quite cool, CYTS, they were saying that Europe has made up 61% of their total long haul departures, which is obviously quite significant.
Speaker: um Yeah, i also saw in Tunar that their long haul ah sales have gone up 10%, things like that. ah But then finally, um ah back to my home country, apparently bookings to Cape Town have increased by a multiple of 4.3 times, oh which if confirmed is pretty darn significant.
Speaker: Sao Paulo has doubled. And then just generally speaking, hotel bookings in countries like the Maldives, New Zealand, Australia, they've doubled. um So, i mean, from what I've seen so far, I think these October national holidays have really shown that that there's a lot more momentum growing in the market than than was previously thought.
Speaker: I wonder about what we discussed also, is the volume increasing, but how is the rate and how is the spending of of of Chinese? is is it ah Is it still continuing to be one of the the largest markets by spending and by individual spending, at least for example in Spain?
Speaker: They're the first the third largest spenders. um And since they've been coming or we've been registering in them in Spain, um they are one of the most the markets that spend the most. So I wonder if this opening up in in volume of arrivals is how what kind of consequences that's going to have actually on the average average daily and average total spending on these trips.
Speaker: Do any of you guys foresee a return of the past where, I mean, if these numbers are expanding by such a rate, ah as you point out, at Antonio, and if the spend on ah per average per person is going to be going down, do we see any potential for yeah a return to the past of the groups, the flags, cruising around, lots of Chinese groups, queues, um like like visibly in Europe at least. Is there any chance of that happening? What do you guys think?
Speaker: that's ah That's a good question. I mean, just by by sheer numbers, that may come back, but just because it's maybe a better way of organizing. I don't think the Chinese tourists, even though they like to travel in group, but we're talking about groups of friends, groups of family, um I don't think they're going to try to go back to these, or there's going to be a stampede to go back towards traditional groups.
Speaker: But no doubt, if the numbers if the numbers increase, then you may have that kind of, you know, you have, you can see a lot of Chinese, a lot of Chinese ah everywhere. But still, for example, for Spain, we're only talking last year, or only 700,000 Chinese. so That increase for some countries is is very relative, or even France or or Italy.
Speaker: um Italy, I think, has less tourists than we do, and France has maybe two or three million. I'm not very sure that it's difficult to find data for for for France. So there's still not ah there's still not many, many tourists. And Spain was looking at going towards, I think last year, we 97.6 or something like that, million tourists.
Speaker: So 700,000 tourists, Spanish, Chinese tourists is not so much. um So even though, even though if they do increase, I don't think they're going to go through, through, through this. There may be ah more Chinese getting together in one certain place. But traveling in groups with a little flag today, um it's Tuesday. So I'm in Belgium and tomorrow's Wednesday, so I'm in Portugal.
Speaker: I'm not very sure the Chinese tourist wants to do that anymore, but you never know.
Speaker: because the currently the national holiday plus the mid-altern festival, let's all together you know let's to make the whole holiday if you have a three days annually plus the mid-autumn festival and the national holiday is making a total is I think it's a 13 days long holiday period so it's definitely they will trigger a lot of people that especially in the second tier cities, the you know, momentum to go overseas for long longer, you know, that's long haul destinations that will definitely have, you know, people, you know, that are not familiar with the long haul travels will join the tour group and
Speaker: You know, for the people that are not familiar with long host, probably the first thing they do is probably join like a multi destination tour group, you know, show them around. So that's definitely, you know, for the tour group, if, you know, for the people that are early to join the, you know, go to, for example, first time to go to Europe, they just want to see the difference countries and see what's the difference between, you know, the country and China. That's first step. But, you know, but once they have seen that,
Speaker: Well, if they go to the second time, probably they will choose differently, you know, which country I prefer. I want see more of the culture or, you know, more of the nature of the scenery, you know, that's, will ah you know, choose the one destination or one or two destination to discover more.
Speaker: So, well, we'll, you know, keep monitoring the change. But I think that it's not going to be, you know, like it used to be, you know, the tool group all goes up, you know, that's ah dramatically like take like 60 or 70% of the total share. It's not going to happen again. It's only just from time to time. But to when and the, you know, that's ah that' a good chance for the, you
Speaker: the people that haven't had chance to to travel over overseas for long hauls, that ah is starting to to have a bit of a taste for the long haul tour. But for overall, the, you know, that's a,
Speaker: ah We'll have ah you know people that ah travel for different purpose and different interests. Or, you know, that's a FIT or tailor-made group small with families and the big group that all have a small share of the overall market.
Speaker: well but so so So the current, like right now, live trends that we've been discussing then, that that would also, wouldn't that also just imply that there's a lot of first-time travelers ah coming out right now, whether they be younger people or from other cities, but that does this imply that there's a lot lot more first-time travelers coming into the market?
Speaker: um What would it say? For example, if you have looked at Tongcheng, probably there's also their um their customer strategy that will not direct compete with the Ctrip. So it's probably the Tongcheng customers move on the tier two cities.
Speaker: um So that's why the you know but's from their number, that um average destination, is probably higher than the average that the Chinese travelers, I will think that's probably that's what happened.
Speaker: And just out of curiosity, Antonio, and this is my my last question for you guys on this topic, just out of curiosity, where you are in Kuming, in Yunnan province, your friends and colleagues in that part of the world, where are they going for these holidays?
Speaker: Are they going, are they traveling domestically in China or are they slipping across the border into Southeast Asia or they flying to Europe or what are they doing? Well, for good or for bad, most of my friends are from hospitality. So they're working during this this time, right? But actually, most of them are are doing local local trips. So they are staying around. Many of them are even and staying around in Yunnan, because Yunnan does have a lot of, obviously has a lot of tourist tourism attraction.
Speaker: um But most of them are staying or staying locally. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I've also got friends that in Beijing who are not, they're not, yeah, they're not traveling, a sorry, they're not traveling far, let's put it this way, but they're not traveling to the usual suspects of Southeast Asia, whatever. They're going to Russia.
Speaker: um going to places like Vladivostok, sorry, in Chinese Haitian way. How dare I say Vladivostok? um And ah yes, so so I've also found that quite interesting as a phenomenon going on. So yeah, anyway. um But without further ado, it would be great to pick your brains a little bit, Alfred, about ah the AI reports you did. So if you don't mind, ah for our audience who might not know about it, and could you just give us a ah yeah a description of what it was and and and how it came out and what were some of the findings?
Speaker: Yeah, so let's basically we have conducted a ai searched um um and research um based on the AI answer for the outbound trip.
Speaker: ah We did it in July and the question was to ask the AI about ah um what how the AI is going to recommend for national holiday, which is right now. So that's is ah more than two months ago. We started with 240 questions asked AI about different sectors like ah for senior or for family or for the young people or for honeymooners. You know, totally um
Speaker: um eight sectors, including a business mye sector. So that covers the majority of the people traveling.
Speaker: And that's 240 queries to prompt AI. So we get AI has responded, you know, and For example, when we ask AI with no specific content mentioned, we get a recommendation that comes up with a list.
Speaker: You know, that's so how manying which country been recommended by how many times. And we also have the the calculation that if the the country was recommended in the first place,
Speaker: we'll have a more score than in the second, third or fourth. We have a bit of a system to calculate that.
Speaker: ah So and in in general, that's we find that, so you know, obviously Southeast Asia and Japan will have the yeah um the higher ranking in terms of the, you know, the AI asking general, but then we'll also ask if I go to different continent like ah Asia or like Europe, like America, um Pacific, um Africa. So the different continent will have different answers. and that's that' that That's in general. So we totally were being recommended in AI answers.
Speaker: from the 2040 that we asked AI. So that's the general, that's what we have done for for the AI report. And then ah just quickly, ah what were the results?
Speaker: What happened? What's in France? m So it's in general, Singapore was from you know the different sectors. Singapore has come out the the first.
Speaker: And then there's Thailand, Japan. um um you know what's um'm um Like Questor Press was Australia ranked on number five.
Speaker: which is, you know, considering it's a long haul distillation that's been ranked on the number five is quite a significant achievement from the AI search result. And was, you that's like Malaysia and the, you know,
Speaker: um like Maldives, you know, come out on the top 10 and Korea.
Speaker: And so that's that's the, um you know, majority of the Asia, but certainly some countries that are quite, you know,
Speaker: have a quite surprisingly been ranked in quite a high position. We would normally not think that they would get that position.
Speaker: yeah Alfred, can can I ask you about um Alfred? you sorry Yeah. Sorry. Can I ask you about in particular, right? I mean, first of all, congratulations, obviously, because ah it ah it's a beautiful report. And I think it's quite innovative. it's I haven't seen me personally, maybe it exists, but I haven't seen ah a really such an in-depth report on on IT. Now, specifically looking at the results for Spain, right? um And there is this paradox in which actually Spain is
Speaker: um number one positions is is very high, but the actual recommendations is, if I look at it, it's Italy, okay, France, okay. But Switzerland, Portugal are on top of of of Spain, right, in the in in the ranking of recommendations.
Speaker: Can you explain a little bit why why this is happening? Because it seems that there's visibility on one side, but there the the recommendations are not so high on the other. Yeah,
Speaker: ah so let's go back to the problem that so first we asked AI about the, you know, with no a specific count continents that's required. And it came with the answer, and then we asked specifically for the euro.
Speaker: So the answer is a little bit different. I think that... ah um You know, if we ask AI, so how AI will, um you know, make the decision, is the algorithm that ah AI have is first with their LRM, how how hams lack language model, that's ah the the basic information they have.
Speaker: And then they will have another is RAG. So it's the cart they go to internet and check and compare the the two set data sets and come up with an answer. so um um So but I think that's ah you if you ask a general question, so probably the um the the the database AI have,
Speaker: is the, you know, that's come up with the more general questions. So probably that's the large language model. The answer is have self have the ah more influence over the RHE.
Speaker: But when the last more specific questions, so probably the RHE, the real time, the internet search content probably take over more with the answer. So that's probably that's why it's sometimes you ask more specific that answer come out with a little bit different.
Speaker: I think that's in general, but, you know, for these more specific answers, we need to look at ah the, you know, for different segments, we ask the for um like um I've asked, you know, that honeymoon so the or the youths or for elderly, for the mice, different sectors. so That's ah the the the how, you know, what contents put out there in read by AI,
Speaker: will influence the answers. are So, uh, probably that's the, you know, when the AI, when the AI go to search contents, uh, the AI will, you know,
Speaker: ah you know, summarize all the counters and get the gather results. That's the how, weve why did it to make it a little bit different, I think. So what should Spain actually do in order to, you know, if I'm the, if if I'm, I'm the Spanish tourism authority, I'm talking about Spain, but let's say that the United Kingdom wants to improve their ranking or Germany or Greece.
Speaker: How, how exactly in this case, can we improve that ranking? Yeah, what steps should be taken? I think first overall, the ah you have to look at your own strengths in SMAN. That's are ah that's that that's the where you start you know with your resources and the strengths and then and you prepare the content.
Speaker: that ah you know to the match the strengths, that first you need to make sure that ah your strengths not being overtaken by other destinations. And also the strengths, the contents that you prepared need to match with the Chinese AI um different, um ah you know, like ah the, for example, like Doubao. Doubao is the Chinese AI and in the bit dance and eco-environment.
Speaker: And the new content needs to be in the eco-environment and easily for the AI to read.
Speaker: ah you know, with the content that you have always answered that, you know, on the top of your article or you, you know you beginning of the video or whatever. So that's easier for the AI tool to take that content into the overall calating calculation.
Speaker: ah So let's... say AI is not um you know ah you know super powerful, so they still have the you know the ah bit of a lazy part. is If that's AI easier to get from the the articles in the top line, that's AI that will prefer to reference to that content.
Speaker: So that's the you know that's ah two things they need to do. First, you have the content that promotes the destination. And second, it's right channel and to be ai readable. So that's the two things that are very important.
Speaker: So... If I understand correctly, basically what you're telling me is that we need someone. If I think if you want to position yourself correctly for the China market, you need to have someone obviously who understands how AI is actually looking at all the materials that they source.
Speaker: And second of all, you need to have actually a company that helps you, a company that is native to China, that knows the Chinese market and is able to plug words and content which are relevant to China AI. So it's a question of AI plus plus China, right? So I guess you need to have the right a person helping you out. it Create consulting, for example, would be a great example of a fantastic company that can help you out. But you need to have someone who actually is specialized in this and can help you position yourself. That's correct, right?
Speaker: Yes, correct. Yes, yeah i was absolutely correct. So let's say that. um So that's these the um ah you know it's Chinese AI are different compared with the Western like ChatGPT Gemini.
Speaker: um So, let's um and ah majority of the information they will first will search in Chinese content. I'm not saying that they will not search other languages, but first they will um to search Chinese content. So that the top preferred source of information.
Speaker: ah So then the if there's not much information they search, they will go to others like English, and Maybe Spanish, depends on the what content they ask, yeah you ah the person asks, but the the Chinese content will first well influence the the AI answers.
Speaker: Yeah, understood. Thanks, Alfred. May i ask a bit of a naughty question? Yeah. And then that question is, can these results be manipulated?
Speaker: ah like Like, for example, if you would like to position this particular destination as number one, is it possible to manipulate? And and the reason why I ask you is that because some have asked me that question directly. And also, I'll be completely frank with you, Alfred. um Some of the results from your reports um ah put me into a little...
Speaker: bit of muddy water because I do have clients and and those clients weren't number one position. so so So one or two of the clients were like, why are we not number one? And i was like, it's out of my hands. This is empirical research, but but but please let me know. I'm curious about this myself.
Speaker: Well, let's say that ah ah Yes, you could influence AI answers, but the country in China that already have the the regulations and the um the policy that said um you cannot put fake contents on internet to influence the AI that recommends you, but ah for example, you said that ah you know there's you know there's there there just a ranking that you know research gives you the award, you are the ah number one in which sector you know that content will affect the AI answer. AI will read that as oh yeah
Speaker: and If that's true, and then it should be recommended. But you know in the beginning, that some companies do post those fake contents, but now but the regulation says that you cannot use that fake information to mo manipulate AI authors that start to have some new regulations to to to to to to to stop people doing that. And the second, that a um the AI is all that's a, we'll check references ah also, you know, get smarter.
Speaker: So that's a, that's a, if that's the contents being considered by buy AI, it's the free contents, and then then you will get less.
Speaker: So that's ah probably the the AI recommendation. is calledlack If you go use the fake content, the AI first probably will recommend you as here. And then on the other side, that's a AI thing that your brand posts a lot of fake content and then drops and probably will not get be recommended by AI for a long time.
Speaker: So that's the, you know, the ruin your rep reputation. That's a, you know, that's a very dangerous thing for you to do. Let's break the regulations and the ruin your reputation. For the long run, that brand will not do that. That's why I'm talking with Antonio. First, using what you use strengths in which area and then based on your strengths, you build build the content.
Speaker: So that's you to make sure that you, you know, you know um when AI recommended that's, you know, to, to, to, to to fulfill your strengths and not fake strengths, you know, to make that, you know, a fake claim in the AI. But after, you know, if somebody that's being recommended by AI, that they take the recommendation and go there and say it's different,
Speaker: And then, you know, that's a not satisfy customer that customer. They will post content on the Internet. It will also affect what AI will recommend in the future. That's it. will You know, that says that oh, I had bad experience because i think that the destination will offer this, but when I go there, it's totally wrong. That's no, there's no such service or that's, you know, that's a bad experience. And then that's, we'll have a bad image to a brand or destination.
Speaker: So, So Alfred, just just, I mean, it's it's it's a quite a deep report. Just out of curiosity, how how long did it take you to compile this report?
Speaker: well let's um Well, that's the first time we do that. It's kind of over a month to, you know, what's um ah first we have lots of answers and we collect answers and we, you know, see how we make the reports is interesting and, you know, get reports that make sense. that's ah You know, it's First, we use that if AI recommend you that you have a one point, but then later on, we think it's not you know much scientific. that ah
Speaker: Because AI recommend you in the first place or in the last place, that' that's a different. ah We'll have a different influence on the um on the people that are seeing the recommendation that probably the you know the first one will higher influence than the later one. so we develop a system that how they calculate and the different precision that, you know, that we have the different ranking to to calculate that ah this is each destination, how their answer is
Speaker: how strong the answer being, you know, affecting the end user, the potential travelers, you know, buts the and then we look at the deeply with the different the answers that I gave, for example, like the the um and um In Africa, the um cap weight. Michael, is that cap weight?
Speaker: I still can't even pronounce the photo down, the the destination. But quite surprisingly, in the Africa's recommendation, that commerce number seven.
Speaker: So the destination that I and never heard of, coming to the AI answer because of the World Cup, they have a good performance. Then people start curious. They start to search ah ab the destination and the ah they They come up with lots of ah um news articles about the destination, and then they come into AI answer. So, that's you know, AI is quite a...
Speaker: live, you know, with the answer that, ah you know, that's a not stay stay there forever. So whenever there's and different news, you know, with the in our um recommendations, there's not much of the the Middle East country come up.
Speaker: in the recommendation because during that time, but's you know, that's ah the war in the Middle East. that's ah So that's normally if you ask AI, so the truth, you know, lots of Middle East country that, you know, that, you know, because they spend a lots of money promoting, but it it's frankly that there was not much Middle or East country that come out in the AI recommendations.
Speaker: Yeah. And when is the when is the next report? Yeah, we boom we probably will um um target for the Chinese New Year before Chinese New Year. So, yeah. So, you know, for the a recommendations and, you know, we will see our um at the time, but it makes it that we will target our next report to the Chinese New Year period.
Speaker: I've got one last quick ah question. And and ah this is always what i love about ah China having its own ecosystem, um and completely independent ecosystem and its own independent AI systems, everything like with Chinese characteristics.
Speaker: Similar but different kind of thing. So now, accordingly, so so from this report, but what was also a little bit interesting and confusing for me at the same time was that um I'm assuming that that these AI platforms being of Chinese characteristics,
Speaker: is that it would prioritize what Chinese travelers' values prioritize. I'm assuming it would prioritize safety.
Speaker: It would prioritize ah ease of visa. It would prioritize ah ease of logistics, of transport, of getting there. um like like ah i would assume that it would rank higher, the one the destinations that tick these boxes that are closer to countries ah cultural convenience ah than than otherwise. but but then at the same time, so for example, like... um ah So for the continent of Africa, ah South Africa came out number one, Morocco number two.
Speaker: um thought That was a little bit surprising um and interesting. and And then, for example, for the Americas, which which for our audience understanding, the Americas included both North America and South America together.
Speaker: um Mexico comes out number one, um not America. um i mean I could maybe understand a little bit of that, but like absolutely not Canada whatever, but Mexico comes out number one. But then quite on the flip side, Brazil was quite far down the list for the Americas, um whereas Brazil is now free visa on arrival, easy visa, ah free visa on arrival. um
Speaker: um Brazil is part of BRICS. that China is also part of us. And so there's these natural government to government relationships. and And therefore, I'm assuming pretty high opinions amongst the citizens.
Speaker: um Yeah. How do you make make make sense make sense of those? so Or would it maybe be because of the specific timing of October? Maybe Chinese New Year would give different ah results.
Speaker: I don't know. How would you interpret that?
Speaker: Yes, you're absolutely right. do the yeah There are lots of surprises in the the AI search results. so um For example, like um we We know that, you know, America that, you know, but even, ah you know, when we doing the ai research that America been for a quite a long time, that not have a good religion with China, but we know that, you know, America still, it's a a lot of flies go to America that, i know, ah and, um you know, there's still quite strong ah tourist destination.
Speaker: um But when we ah consider the the answers, for example, like a the visa, the how easily you get a visa to a destination that now American is kind of like very difficult for Chinese to get. get a visa. So those infl information will would definitely will come up with some of the people that, ah you know, when they apply a visa, their experience will go to social media. So that will influence the AI answers.
Speaker: And, you know, and also for the American, let's um For a long time, there is no, um a ah you know, the agency or the, you know, the the brand that's representing the whole America.
Speaker: We know that it was a brand USA, but we haven't seen the brand USA that's active in China for a long time. So, yeah you know,
Speaker: And and for for for all of that, that it all influenced the AI answers. And um you know at the end also, not recently, but in the past, that's ah lots of people, that for Chinese people, that's when they go to America, they have lots of potential problems and have been it cannot enter the the the country.
Speaker: So that's all will affect the AIS on search. And for um Canada, also the, you know, they require visa and they have, the you know, ah the ADI as a normal status so only just for a short time.
Speaker: So there was the the travelers going their number still quite low compared with the previous results. So that's what, you know, been affecting them. But just especially for the, the yeah, I recommend for Mexico,
Speaker: you know, the to us that Mexico is not a safe destination. There is also, you know, lots of ah um news about not safe in Mexico, but i did look at the ai recommendation.
Speaker: All the authors are pointing to Cancun, which is quite strong, a Mexico ah tourist at destination.
Speaker: And that destination concern is, you know, a visitor friendly and also safe compared with other Mexico destinations that Cancun is quite safe for tourists.
Speaker: And it's quite suitable for different sectors. we you know We ask like for the and senior people, for honeymooners, or for youth, for pp the the you know the mice sectors.
Speaker: They all come up with quite high recommended for Cancun. So that's one you know single that's a destination come up with know we say yeah suitable for all different sectors.
Speaker: That's how Mexico become quite high recommend level compared with other destinations. And um back to your question, is the Brazil.
Speaker: why Brazil um rank is very low. as Also, let's say they give um Chinese visa free was quite recently getting the visa free for the Chinese. that's And if I go to Brazil, travel destination, like i need to fly for over 20 hours minimum. Sometimes it's from China to to Brazil, like 24 hours, make that ah extremely long haul.
Speaker: And um Also the safety issues and also let Brazil, I haven't seen any tourist um brand or the destination from the Brazil that's ah you know they' heavily ah promoting them in China. There's less you know the the Chinese content.
Speaker: If you compare Brazil and the South Africa, you know, it's also a a longho quite a long travel distance. But South Africa has been quite um um active in China market for a long time.
Speaker: So there are lots of Chinese content in built, being actively managed in China market. So that makes a difference.
Speaker: You know, if you compare with two destinations, oh, I have, you know, Longho and, you know, the Brazil even a, now have a less barrier visa compared with the South Africa.
Speaker: ah But, you know, for the Chinese content itself, make the two destinations so different.
Speaker: well Great. Well, thank you so much, Alfred. And everybody, I think we've come to the end of our time for today's podcast. We will be doing this on a monthly basis.
Speaker: um So a if you enjoyed the show, we look forward to seeing in a month's time. And I'd like to thank Antonio and Alfred um for today's discussion.
Speaker: And um hope everybody has a good holiday. Thank you very much. Thank you, Michael. yeah And we're looking forward for the next show that's due in the most time.
