The anticipated surge in Chinese travel for 2024 is poised to unfold soon

The Feb 10-17 Spring Festival break in this Year of the Dragon, being longer by a day, will unleash the full potential of China's dynamic travel and consumption markets, given that the Chinese have already indicated their great enthusiasm for holiday journeys in the post-Covid-19 era, experts said.

Anticipating the travel rush, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released holiday arrangements in late October. Since then, online searches for train tickets and domestic and international flight tickets have surged, market sources said.

A longer Spring Festival is expected to have a huge positive impact on the recovery of the tourism market. The holiday will mark the first winter vacation and the first Spring Festival since China resumed group outbound tourism after the pandemic subsided.

Outbound tourism will surpass the levels seen during the summer vacation and the National Day holiday in 2023, industry experts forecast.

"A longer holiday provides enough time for consumers for family reunions, visits to relatives and friends, and travel," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

"During the holiday, people's budgets for dining, shopping, buying gifts and other expenses are usually relatively high, and this is foreseen to have a significant impact on tourism growth," he said.

In the first three quarters of 2023, Chinese consumers spent 3.69 trillion yuan ($515 billion) on domestic travel, up more than 114 % year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Some places in China have emerged as popular destinations for the Spring Festival holiday. Sanya and Haikou of the southern island province of Hainan lead the pack, followed by Dali and Xishuang Banna Dai autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

For outbound travel, Chinese travellers have frequently searched for European destinations such as Spain, Switzerland and France, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The number of inquiries about visa applications to those destinations has climbed, Qunar said.

"For tailored trips, ideas would vary for different spans. On a seven- or eight-day trip, consumers can visit two or three destinations. If it's more than nine days, we will help plan a longer route for travellers," said Yang Guanghui, director of vacation business at Qunar.

Winter in China means demand for ice- and snow-themed trips will be high. At the same time, places where it is summer now, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, have caught the attention of Chinese travellers. They are the hot spots for so-called counter-season travel.

Eyeing the demand surge, tourism promotion agencies in different countries have increased efforts to attract Chinese travellers.

South African Tourism said South Africa has one of the largest young populations and tailor-made travel packages for young people in China. Chinese tourists tend to spend more days and travel with groups in South Africa, and the agency would like to engage and cooperate with more tour operators in China.

After the pandemic, the tourism industry has recovered fast in South Africa. In 2023, the country welcomed more than 16 million visitors, of whom 4.2 million came from Africa, and many others came from Europe and the United States. In late 2022, Air China resumed flights connecting Beijing and Johannesburg.

From January to September 2023, about 93,000 Chinese travellers visited South Africa, up 248 per cent year-on-year. Besides, Chinese tourists' average per capita expenditure in South Africa reached 18,518 yuan during the period, according to the China Tourism Academy.

"We also promote travelling in the continent of Africa. We are now promoting package tours to small towns, villages and townships, not just Table Mountain. We have also got a beer industry that is growing substantially," Patricia de Lille, South Africa's tourism minister, said at a recent event in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Tourism Board has held various activities in China recently to attract more Chinese travellers. New Zealand was among the first group of 20 overseas destinations that China resumed group tours to, and the number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand steadily increased in 2023.

In the first eight months of 2023, some 76,000 Chinese visited New Zealand, and more than half of them went to New Zealand for vacation. In August last year, New Zealand welcomed about 16,000 Chinese tourists, or 53 % of the volume seen in the same period of 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to the tourism board.

Since December, the direct flights that connect China and New Zealand have fully resumed compared with the pre-COVID-19 period. Six airlines now operate flights connecting key cities in New Zealand and eight cities in China.

Since Dec 1, Malaysia has started a visa-free policy for Chinese travellers for up to 30 days, as this year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. Online searches for Malaysia-related travel products surged in China after the announcement.

In 2019, before the pandemic, more than 3 million Chinese tourists visited Malaysia, accounting for nearly 12 per cent of global travellers visiting the country, and contributing nearly 18 % of the total tourism revenues of the country, according to Malaysian government data.

"Malaysia has long been a hot overseas destination for Chinese travellers. The visa-free policy is expected to effectively shorten the decision-making period of tourists and the sales cycle of related travel products," said Fan Dongxiao, director of short-haul outbound tours at Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

"The visa-free policy is foreseen to significantly help promote Malaysia's tourism market. Malaysia boasts good island resources and reasonable prices. Compared with domestic island tours, it is cost-effective, hence an advantage," Fan said.

Multiple direct flights connecting Kuala Lumpur and several Chinese cities have either resumed or been launched. Prominent among them are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Xiamen in Fujian province.

For the upcoming Spring Festival holiday, Malaysia is expected to be a dark horse among Chinese travellers' outbound tourism destinations. The number of Chinese tourists who visit Malaysia may exceed the level of 2019, as long as there are enough flights, said Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of CYTS Tours Holding Co. in Beijing.

Zhu Wenqian

China Daily

Asia News Network