China’s tourists opt for domestic, cheaper destinations – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

In numbers, the Chinese tourists might be reaching this year pre-pandemic levels, but their destinations will be more domestic and cheaper, says marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok at CNBC. She expects recovery in Chinese traveling internationally to take longer, partly as “the feeling that the rest of the world is mad and unsafe is even higher than in 2023.”

CNBC:

“This year, domestic tourism will surpass pre-pandemic levels,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of China digital consultancy ChoZan.

She expects recovery in Chinese traveling internationally to take longer, partly as “the feeling that the rest of the world is mad and unsafe is even higher than in 2023.”…

Local governments outside China’s big cities have been stepping up their efforts to attract tourists, primarily through social media.

Guangxi officials earlier this month said its promotional videos on apps such as ByteDance’s Douyin and Xiaohongshu, known in English as “Little Red Book” or “Red,” had millions of viewers.

“They try to go viral, they try to involve their community, cultural heritage, put it all online,” Dudarenok said. “The moment you go viral you will have thousands of tourists at your doorsteps.”

People have flocked to the town of Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong after its barbecue skewer culture took off on social media last year. Similarly, three million visitors poured into Harbin city over the three-day New Year’s Eve holiday after its ice sculptures and unique northern customs gained traction on social media.

TV Shows featuring specific regions have also helped boost tourism.

Thanks to a television drama set in Altay, the remote part of Xinjiang province in the far west saw a nearly 38% surge in visitors from a year ago during the first three days of this year’s May holiday, according to iQiyi, which released the mini-series.

“The TV shows are a great draw,” Dudarenok said, adding that “food is always the most important reason for Chinese tourists to travel.”

China’s expansive network of high-speed trains and flights has made it easier for people to visit small towns, even for just two or three days.

More at CNBC.

Ashley Dudaarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Three groups of modern Chinese tourists: how to win them over – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok identifies three different groups of modern Chinese tourists and gives tips in Dao Insight on how businesses can attract them, especially now they tend to spend their money domestically, not internationally. She says now is the best time to set up 2023 and 2024 strategies.

Ashley Dudarenok on the international jet setter:

With the recent reopening of China’s outbound tourism industry, an increasing number of Chinese citizens are venturing overseas once again. The recent Dragon Boat Festival holiday in China demonstrated a significant revival in outbound travel, with border crossings reaching 65% of its 2019 level, according to the National Immigration Administration. Although the festival is a brief national holiday, the surge in cross-border travel highlights the growing demand for international travel among Chinese tourists.

Ctrip (another Chinese travel agency) reported that the average cost for outbound travel decreased during the holiday, with one-way air tickets being 6% lower than during the May Day holiday and bookings surging up to 12 times the levels that were seen a year ago.

Ctrip revealed that the most popular destinations during the Dragon Boat Festival included Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, Tokyo and Singapore, with travellers spending an average of $415 per hotel booking. This resurgence in outbound travel showcases the potential for businesses in the travel and tourism industry to capitalise on the pent-up demand for international experiences among Chinese tourists…

To succeed in capturing the attention of international jetsetters, businesses can harness the power of livestreaming as a marketing tool. By showcasing a range of attractions, local experiences, and cultural highlights in real-time, businesses can pique the interest of potential tourists and entice them to explore the featured destinations.

A prime example of harnessing the power of livestreaming is the 2023 collaboration between Trip.com, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, The United States Travel and Tourism Administration, and the California Travel and Tourism Commission. This partnership drew in over 1 billion views, showcasing the immense potential of livestreams as a marketing tool.

The collaboration also highlights the benefits of working closely with tourism authorities and commissions. By pooling resources and expertise, businesses and tourism organisations can create engaging and informative content tailored to the International Jetsetter demographic.

By leveraging strategies like limited-time offers or livestream-exclusive discounts and packages, businesses can successfully incentivise viewers to book their travel experiences and cater to the ever-growing market of international jetsetters.

 

Two more groups in Dao Insights.

Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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China cruise industry: what are its perspectives – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

China launched its first homemade cruise ship, as this part of the tourist industry struggles to stay afloat. But consumption expert Ashley Dudarenok sees a bright future for cruises from China, as this industry is still in its infancy in a country where many look for alternatives, she tells at state-owned broadcaster CGTN.

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China consumer sentiment is slowly improving – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

Domestic tourism in China saw a jump, and consumer sentiment is improving more slowly after the zero-Covid policies ended, says consumer expert Ashley Dudarenok at CNBC. Brands are relucted in spending their marketing budgets. Dudarenok said that heading into 2023 and the Lunar New Year, some smaller brands had turned more conservative on China and cut their marketing budgets for the country in half.

CNBC:

More recent data show Chinese consumers are starting to open their wallets again, especially for travel.

During the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday that ended Friday, national tourism revenue surged by 30% from last year to 375.84 billion yuan, according to official figures. But that was still short of 2019 spending.

“Consumer sentiment is better. Spending power is kind of back,” Ashley Dudarenok, founder of China digital consultancy ChoZan, said Friday. “But I don’t think that suddenly from one month to the next things are back … to 2019 or double 2019.”

Dudarenok said that heading into 2023 and the Lunar New Year, some smaller brands had turned more conservative on China and cut their marketing budgets for the country in half.

“Consumer sentiment was really down, nobody knew what was actually coming, and a lot of marketing budget and dollars went into 11.11 [Singles Day] and it was also not successful, so brands did not earn a lot over 11.11” and another shopping festival in December, she said. “Then suddenly China opened. Many people did not expect that [and were] quite startled by this swift development.”

Dudarenok does expect overall consumer trends to continue, whether it’s people in larger cities spending more “on feeling better” or people in smaller cities paying for higher-quality products.

Many analysts expect high levels of savings among Chinese consumers during the pandemic will translate to greater spending this year.

At the policymaker level, Chinese authorities say they’re prioritizing consumption. Premier Li Keqiang led the first post-holiday executive meeting of the State Council on Saturday, and “called for efforts to expedite consumption recovery and keep foreign trade and investment stable,” according to a readout. The meeting said policies to promote the consumption of cars and other big-ticket items would be “fully implemented.”

More at CNBC.

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Innovations in China’s post-corona tourism – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok discusses how innovation changes the post-corona travel plans of China’s consumers. Tourism should be preparing for some changes, she argues. And when will the Chinese be ready to travel?

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Travel startups dealing with the COVID-19 crisis – William Bao Bean

 

William Bao Bean

Leading VC William Bao Bean explains how travel startups managed through the COVID-19 crisis at PhocusWire Pulse. In China, they survived by focusing on booming domestic travel, but the lack of international travel hit some severely. Some of the travel startups he guided to the market had to give up their efforts to enter the Asian market, while others adjusted to the difficult market conditions.

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The story behind China’s Golden Week – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenok

China’s National Day is the start of its October Golden Week. Business analyst Ashley Dudarenok dives in her vlog into the history and the economic motives behind that weeklong season of travel and celebrations, and its disruptive effects on retail, logistics, and other industries.

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What is China’s mid-Autumn festival about – Ashley Dudarenok

 

Ashley Dudarenokk

Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok looks at the recent Autumn festival, China’s second-largest holiday. How did it develop and how does it affect tourism, eating, and drinking, from her digital vlog. 80 million people have been traveling domestically this year, she says, and comparable to America’s Thanksgiving festival.

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China's tourism will never be the same after the coronavirus crisis - Ashley Dudarenok

Ashley Dudarenok

Domestic travel in China might be recovering after being hit by the COVID-19 crisis, but international travel might never be the same, says marketing analyst Ashley Dudarenok at Technode. People will likely never travel the same way internationally again, she adds.

Ashley Dudarenok:

On June 11, after 56 days of no local transmissions and as control measures began to loosen, Beijing had another outbreak. As a result, the city locked down again, and lots of flights were canceled. A similar situation occurred in Jilin not long ago. The local government blocked travel to and from the city since May 13th. However, these incidents haven’t affected people’s willingness to travel.  

According to Fliggy, travel was up during the Dragon Boat Festival in June with the overall number of tourists returning to 60% of last year’s numbers. Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei have returned to (in Chinese) about 40% of last year’s levels. 

So China’s tourism industry is gradually recovering despite strong Covid measures. With policy support from local governments and creative promotion, domestic tourism will spring back soon. However, international tourism will take longer and people will likely never travel the same way internationally again. 

Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky has said that he believes travel will never be the same. He foresees people in the West limiting their travel to a 200 mile range from home, heading to nature spots and small centres. He believes the days of visiting big destinations like London, Rome, and Paris—and posing for photos in front of famous landmarks—is over. 

Some of these trends are already playing out in China as destinations like Huzhou’s Giraffe Hotel, which mimics a safari experience in Africa, with real giraffes roaming the grounds, pop up. It brings to mind a former time in China, when famous foreign sites were created within its borders for travellers who would never have the chance to see them in real life. 

The chance will come again, but fewer will want to take it up than before Covid-19 entered our lives.

More at Technode.

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Starting a new Hainan airline is a good idea - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

While birds are taking over many international airports, China's second largest airline company China Eastern has launched a new airliner with a focus on its touristic Hainan. Business analyst Shaun Rein argues this is actually a good idea, even though much of the airline industry is still on its back after the coronavirus crisis, he tells at the BBC. 

BBC:

Shaun Rein, founder of the China Market Research Group, said it was actually a good time to start a new airline focused on Hainan.
"Even before Covid, 2020 was the year of domestic Chinese tourism as China wants to focus more on seeing their own country, especially hot spots like Hainan, Yunnan and emerging ones like Gansu."
He added that the US-China trade war has seen "emerging patriotism with Chinese citizens wanting to show their children how great their country is and to teach them more about its heritage".
Meanwhile, ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have discouraged many Chinese travellers from visiting the former British colony.
"Hainan itself as a destination is hot right now, especially as the government supports duty-free shopping there. Hainan also has no quarantine or other travel restrictions."

More at the BBC.

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

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How to catch a fast-changing China after the coronacrisis - Shaun Rein/Ashley Dudarenok

Shaun Rein, interviewed by Ashley Dudarenok

An even faster shift to online, domestic tourism and health care related activities. Business analyst Shaun Rein sums up how China is changing faster after the corona crisis is over, in an interview with Ashley Dudarenok. Are international brands even more leverage to domestic brands, both wonder. And interesting details on US rumors.

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How China's rise forced Hong Kong's decline - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Pulitzer-price winning journalist Ian Johnson describes the decline of Hong Kong, in all possible ways - not only economically, as China rose, for the NY Review of Books. "Hong Kong failed to install visionary leaders who might have helped Hong Kong retain its place among the handful of truly key global cities," he writes.

Ian Johnson:

This decline is about more than economics. Hong Kong once had a cachet that few cities could match: the home of Bruce Lee, Wong Kar-wai, and Eileen Chang—a bucket-list destination perched on a fault line of global politics. Played right, it could have been a perfect tool for China’s desire to project a better image of itself around the world. And Beijing likely believes that its policies are allowing Hong Kong to still fulfill this purpose.

In reality, the city has lost its global allure. Tourism is booming but only because of Chinese tourists, who now account for nearly 80 percent of arrivals. These aren’t savvy Chinese travelers—that rising class has long since written off Hong Kong as a backwater—but people for whom a visit is their first “foreign” experience. As for the rest of the world, despite a global tourism boom, the number of non-Chinese visitors this decade has stagnated or declined.

One feels this just by walking around Hong Kong. It is still a thrilling setting—the islands, the jutting mountains, the sparkling ocean, the skyscrapers. And its airport—which the British built before they left to show confidence in Hong Kong’s future, and China foolishly criticized at the time as part of a nefarious British plot to bankrupt the colony before leaving—is still world-class. But much of Hong Kong now feels about as exciting as a Chinese provincial capital.

The urban core remains filled with crumbling concrete housing blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s. Many streets are dirty and chock-a-block with low-margin shops hawking fake iPhone cases and cheap SIM cards, while anodyne malls sell global consumer brands that can now be found anywhere in mainland China. Instead of belonging to the twenty-first century, it feels trapped in the 1980s.

Again, one can argue that if Hong Kong feels left behind, it is because China’s rise made wealth and prosperity flow elsewhere in the region. But this is another indictment of China’s stewardship: it failed to install visionary leaders who might have helped Hong Kong retain its place among the handful of truly key global cities. Instead, the city has been run by a series of Beijing-approved mediocrities, all of whom have either resigned in disgrace or been engulfed in crises. All the city’s chief executives were fatally hampered by having to defer on all important decisions to Beijing, making them more like colonial governors than autonomous rulers of a dynamic metropolis.

More at the NY Review of Books.

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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.

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Travel: hard to make a buck for startups - William Bao Bean

William Bao Bean

Ctrip is one of China's successful travel companies, but for most startups, it is a tough market to crack, said William Bao Bean, managing director of the Shanghai-based China Accelerator, last week at a travel conference in Amsterdam, according to Phocuswire.com. Bean did identify some potential success stories, though.

Phocuswire.com:

Ctrip says that orders on the Customized Travel unit increased 180% in 2018. 

According to the research, travelers most likely to book the high-end travel tend to be women or couples aged 31 to 40 years old. Ctrip's data shows an average spend per person on a high-end customized travel package of $3,410 compared to $790 for a standard package. 

Ctrip is targeting China’s high-net-worth individuals who totalled 1.67 million in 2018, according to the report. 

Others are also seeing the potential in this segment with William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV and managing director of Chinaaccelerator, investing in startups targeting these travelers. 

Speaking at the Phocuswright Europe conference in Amsterdam last week, he said most people are “chasing a fraction of a fraction of a fraction” and that while the travel market is huge there is “virtually no money in it.” 

He was talking about how difficult it is for early-stage investors to break in to the market and highlighted a company called Portier that Chinaaccelerator has invested in. 

Portier provides high-end phones to guests in top tier hotels enabling the properties to offer them additional services. 

Bao says that on average the company is increasing revenue room night by 20% and that it’s “high-margin revenue.” 

He also touched on another investment in a company called Lux’Sens, which connects luxury good retailers to consumers, saying that 40% of global luxury spend is from China and that more than half of that spend is outside of China. 

“50/60% of that [spend] happens outside China so why not try and capture that revenue.”   

The Ctrip Customized Travel unit estimates high-end customized travel will grow by 200% in the next three years.

Phocuswire.com.

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Trends in luxury travel - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

China's luxury travelers are high on the agenda of the tourism industry, and Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of the Hurun China Rich List, sees a few major trends. Family trips are emerging as a preference, and WeChat groups of alumni of key universities a forgotten way to connect to the luxury travelers, he tells in the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Rupert Hoogewerf, CEO of the Hurun Report – a research, media and investments business – said that family travel was the third most popular holiday “theme” with high-net-worth individuals and ultra-high-net-worth Chinese travellers. Speaking to the luxury travel brands attending the event also confirmed for us that pleasing the “luxury little emperors” – children – is just as important as anticipating the needs of adult VIP guests... 

During the panel discussions, Hoogewerf also referred to an untapped resource – the alumni of top Chinese and international universities and their WeChat groups. For example, if a former student at Shanghai’s Fudan University – or a Chinese alumnus of a leading overseas university recommends a luxury travel experience, then the rest of his or her peers are highly likely to want to try it for themselves. 

His comments highlighted the fact that there are still underused methods for connecting directly with holiday firms’ target market of China’s affluent travellers.

More at the South China Morning Post.

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High-end Chinese travelers make new choices - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf

Where do they go to, where do they stay. The travel industry is eagerly looking at the luxury traveler from China. The latest Hurun Chinese Luxury Traveller report shows some answers: they increasingly go for luxury homes instead of hotels, says Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf to the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

The study reached out to individuals who spend more than 350,000 yuan (a whopping US$50,250) annually on travel. 

When it comes to accommodation, traditional hotels are no longer the go-to choice, with nearly a quarter now turning to Airbnb-style holiday homes. 

“The performance of the high-end short-stay holiday home market has been weak. However, as travelling as a family grows in popularity, the market is likely to see significant development in the future,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, the Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher. 

Nearly half of the high-end travellers polled already have their own holiday homes, in Thailand (11 per cent) and Australia (10pc), followed by Switzerland and Japan (both 5pc). 

Domestically the southern resort of Sanya, dubbed the Hawaii of Asia, remains their first choice, accounting for 12 per cent, with sea views maybe unsurprisingly topping the requirement list of holiday homes. 

Polar exploration, the most popular travel theme last year, fell by 8.5 per cent and ranked second while parent-child travel enters the top three with 19 per cent. The interest in visiting islands and beaches, on the other hand, has reached it peak, with the selection rate dipping to 13 per cent this year.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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Travel trends for Chinese consumers - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender

The autumn Golden Week is over and business analyst Ben Cavender looks at the trends among high-spending Chinese travellers. Unique places, convenience and safety top the agenda's of Chinese tourists, he tells in CNBC.

CNBC:

Tailor-made travel services are fast becoming customary among wealthy travelers looking to escape cookie-cutter vacation packages. According to Ctrip, factors that more Chinese tourists are seeking out from their holidays include "avoiding big crowds," "no shopping" and private travel guides. 

When travelers visit places others haven't, they can derive "social cachet," and that's become a trend among the middle class, according to Ben Cavender, a principal at consultancy China Market Research Group. 

"Increasingly, we are seeing well-heeled Chinese travel to hard-to-reach destinations for the bragging rights and WeChat pictures [to] show they've been somewhere exotic," he said... 

Convenience, however, has also been a driver for the increase in domestic travel. As the growth in international flight options has not kept up with growth in demand, purchasing tickets without advanced planning can prove difficult and lead to more interest in alternatives that are less of a hassle, Cavender said. 

Safety concerns also likely played a part in influencing travel decisions among mainland tourists, Cavender added, alluding to incidents that have taken place in Europe and the U.S. in recent quarters.

More in CNBC.

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WeChat: indispensable for Chinese tourists - Matthew Brennan

Matthew Brennan at the EU Parliament

Europe is preparing for the 2018 China-EU Tourism year and the European Parliament invited social media expert Matthew Brennan to Brussels to brief them on the position of WeChat. He explained the committee how to improve Europe's performance, writes the China-EU newsletter.

The China-EU newsletter:

Matthew Brennan, Co-Founder of China Channel, explained the potentialities of digital marketing in China. 

“If one is to understand China’s digital ecosystem, one needs to understand the phenomenon of WeChat. WeChat is not social media. It is not, as many people put it, China’s version of WhatsApp. WeChat is a tool, an operating system which integrates all different functions of life.” 

In order to attract Chinese tourists, Europe needs to become smarter and link to the very tools used by Chinese travelers, such as e-wallet solutions like WeChat Pay and Alipay, online booking apps like Ctrip and Dianping, and leading mapping platform Baidu Maps.

More at the China-EU newsletter.

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Terror does have a short-term effect on Chinese tourists - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

The recent attacks in Manchester and especially London do not seem to have a huge impact on the stream of Chinese tourists, who still put Europe and especially the UK on the top of their destinations. But tourists from China are very security conscience, says business analyst Shaun Rein, who does expect a short-term decline, he tells the South China Morning Post.

The South China Morning Post:

Shaun Rein, managing director at China Market Research, warned that the attacks could have a “devastating” impact on Chinese tourism to the UK, particularly since more than one incident has occurred recently.

Chinese visitors are “very concerned about safety and tourism”, so they are more sensitive to international events than other travelers, he said. 

Areas that previously have experienced terror incidents have seen tourism fall off for a short while but saw the negative effect mitigated months later. 

While travel to Paris plummeted from 9.8 million travelers in 2015 to 8.4 million last year in the wake of the 2015 attacks on the city, officials said in April that tourism has recovered. 

Impacts to Chinese tourism in the UK will likely not be long-term, Rein said, although it may take six months without incident to reassure tourists.

More in the South China Morning Post.

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.

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Related articles

• Will the Manchester bombing put tourists off visiting the UK?
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• Britain leads Europe as investment magnet - for now
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Why Airbnb has a chance in China - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson

China's markets are littered with failures by US firms, but Airbnb might actually have a chance, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson in the Guardian. Domestic competition is not strong, and Airbnb has opportunities in international travel by Chinese.

The Guardian:

The home-sharing market in China is still in its infancy, so, although Airbnb only has 80,000 listings there so far, its domestic competitors are not that far ahead. Xiaozhu, its most direct equivalent, has more than 100,000 listings, while Tujia, which is more of a holiday rental site and oversees the management of its properties, claims to have 450,000 listings. 

“It doesn’t strike me that anybody’s got this market yet. It looks like an open playing field,” says Jeffrey Towson, a professor of investment at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. By comparison, he says, when Uber entered China, its domestic competitors, Didi and Kuaidi, were firmly established. After a costly battle, Uber was forced to bow out. 

Airbnb’s other advantage is its global platform. As more young Chinese travel abroad and stay in Airbnb properties, the more likely they are to use it when they go home. 

“[Airbnb] should try to dominate outbound Chinese tourism immediately,” Towson says, putting the number of these trips at around 110m a year. “Go after all of them. The Chinese competitors, are they going to start finding listings in Brazil? They can’t do that.”

More in the Guardian.

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