This year’s ITB China Travel Trends Report
shows that while travel companies in the country have struggled since 2020, optimism about the long-term development of the travel
industry has prevailed.
79% of surveyed companies that managed to
stay in the industry were focusing on maintaining relationships
with their customers even during the pandemic era and are
confident that their customers’ loyalty will help in their
business recovery.
In a sudden nationwide shift in
early December, China’s local epidemic prevention and control
policies have been significantly adjusted.
David Axiotis, General Manager of Messe Berlin
(Shanghai), the organizer of ITB China, said, “The practical
implementation of these relaxations will prove extremely helpful
to promote all-round exchanges, communication and cooperation
between China and other countries once again, and serve as a very
positive signal for China’s outbound tourism to resume in the very
near future.”
As
indicated in the ITB China buyer survey, when asked about their
expectations regarding the recovery of China’s outbound travel
market, over 65% of respondents felt that the Chinese outbound
travel market is capable of bouncing back in around one year after
it opens up (among which 32% felt that it could recover in just
six months).
Considering that travel in China and
the world has been heavily affected for the past three years, the
travel preferences and behavior of Chinese travelers will almost
certainly have
evolved.
What Chinese travelers are expected to value when
choosing a destination are local safety and hygienic measures
(69%), necessary public health measures to control virus outbreaks
(69%) and pricing and promotion (64%).
In terms of
offerings, the surveyed Chinese buyers mentioned customized travel
products as most popular (77%), followed by FIT products with
attractive pricing (75%).
However, there are still
some uncertainties on the road to recovery. Chinese buyers shared
their concern about the stability of the international political
environment, international flights capacity and pricing, and
sufficient reception capacity of the travel supply end, all of
which are vital for international travel companies to welcoming
back Chinese travelers as soon as they start traveling again.
The ITB China Travel Trends Report 2022/2023 is based
on comprehensive surveys, featuring nearly 80 international
destinations / travel suppliers, and over 160 buyer
representatives from Chinese travel companies / travel agencies.
A complimentary copy of the full 12-page, 960KB
report in .pdf format can be requested from Messe Berlin
here.
