Italy: the new Wuhan in the coronavirus crisis

China, with the exception of Hubei province, might be getting back to normal, the rest of the world is still bracing for a further outbreak of the coronavirus. Northern Italy shows remarkable similarities with the early weeks of the crisis in Wuhan: cramped medical facilities, expanding quarantine measure to stop the spread of the virus, and much uncertainty in countries and regions that still try to control the crisis. In China numbers of new patients are dropping, so - unless you might distrust those figures - its heavy-handed approach seems to be working at this list. But global stress on international economic relations seem far from over.

With all the justified criticism on the way China dealt the with coronavirus in the early weeks, the country did make some right choices later in the crisis as containment of the health issues was more important than keeping up the economy. More surprising it is that countries with a more developed health care system like Italy seem utterly unprepared for a major outbreak of the virus. Even a very solid country like Switzerland sees the number of coronavirus patients going up fast. Other European countries and the US seem to be bracing for the march of the coronavirus and still have to prove they can follow the lead of China, who was able to limit the major outbreak to one province. We did get some messages from some of our speakers who suggest their expertise in this field could generate some demand from clients outside China, but to be honest, those insights might be too late for countries and companies who have not yet been taking precautions for a major outbreak of the virus in their region or industry. And while the delayed containers from China have started their journey to the rest of the world, it is still unclear what situation they might meet at the receiving end of their ride. Airline companies seem to have no plan to resume cancelled flights, as demand is still very low.

For those we are preparing for a life after the crisis, we are happy to share our insights for your event, conference or company meeting.
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Slow recovery in China, but expanding global coronavirus mayhem

Tenerife

The China government is trying to push positive news in the way it handles the coronavirus crisis, but the economic fallout is only shaping up as the panic moves to other parts of the world. Airlines, shipping lines and other logistics and hospitality providers are maintaining the reduction on services, as demand is not yet picking up. Some logistic providers contemplate resuming services only in June, although they do not wish to confirm that less-favorable scenario.

Europe has become the latest victim of the coronavirus panic, and the number of patients rises, while numbers in the Americas are still low, but expected to go up too. That means that even when containerships are picking up cargo in China again soon, there might be limited capacity to unload them in the rest of the world.

The policy at the China Speakers Bureau is to advise against planning major events at this stage in Asia and Europe, but most clients have delayed or cancelled already. The option of relocating events becomes also unattractive, as major economic centers like Norther Italy, France, South Korea, Japan and other countries suffer from the coronavirus panic. Not only our speakers have problems in moving around in the world, event organizers have a hard time too to get international audiences together.

Containing the virus and its effects, including a reduction of the spread of the virus when Spring kicks in are still part of the optimistic scenarios. But those scenarios are not strong enough to support planning major events that require larger amount of people to come together. We do see some online speeches taking off, but that is only a very limited number.

Are you interested in discussing your plans and pick our brains on the future developments: do not hesitate to get in touch.

Early positive signs from China, the world braces for more coronavirus spots

With all possible caveats: early signs do indicated the coronavirus is slowly retreating in China. That might reverse, as workers are slowly returning to work, and quarantine measure are partly revoked. Meanwhile, the rest of the world, notably South-Korean, Japan, Iran and Italy are fighting their own hot spots of the coronavirus and the fears of a global pandemic outbreak are all but over. 

When you follow our social media feeds at Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, you might notice that our China news - not related to the coronavirus - is growing since the weekend, and that is a good sign too. But still, we do not expect the event industry to pick up before May, and much might depend not only on China and the success of its quarantine measure, but also how the virus is developing in the rest of the world.

 Are you interested in discussing how to deal with your China event? Do get in touch.

Winners and losers in the China-US trade war - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Consumers are changing their purchasing behavior because of the effects of the ongoing trade war between China and the US. Business analyst Shaun Rein tells the CityWireSelection who are the winners and losers of this war.

Shaun Rein:

The US/China trade war is affecting Chinese consumer behaviour more heavily than many investors realise. For example, luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co. reported a 25% drop in Q1 sales to Chinese tourists visiting the US. 

Chinese people simply don’t want to visit the US right now because they do not feel welcome in Trump’s America. The number of Chinese tourists to Hawaii so far in 2019 has dropped by 23%. Chinese people are also starting to skip buying US brands such as Apple. The big winners out of this shift are Japan, Thailand and domestic Chinese tourist areas such as Yunnan and Gansu. Europe can attract Chinese tourists as well, but much depends on whether the individual country is viewed as pro-China. 

Italy, for example, will benefit, as it was the first major western European economy to sign up to China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative. How well luxury players such as Gucci or Louis Vuitton do will depend largely on political issues in the next quarter.

More at the CityWireSelection.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more strategic experts on the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.