EU-China Tourism Year 2018

EU-China Tourism Year 2018 is a new opportunity for European destinations to encourage tourism in less well-known destinations and for smaller businesses to take advantage of the commercial benefits Chinese visitors bring.

China is the world’s largest travel market in terms of expenditure and the second largest in terms of outbound travel. European destinations are strengthening their position in this market.

2018 will be the EU-China Tourism Year. The European Commission is preparing the ECTY in close cooperation with CNTA (China National Tourism Administration). The aim is to show what the EU has to offer to Chinese visitors by supporting various cooperative marketing campaigns. European associations representing the travel and tourism industry will work with partners of leading European, Chinese and international companies.

Chinese outbound tourism used to be dominated by package tourists drawn from largely similar backgrounds; the huge increase in independent travel possibilities sees new trends and opportunities in the market.

Countries are offering relaxed visa policies, increased numbers of direct flight connections and visa application centres as well as the greater opportunities for flexibility offered by internet booking services.

The Chinese are the largest group of outbound tourists by nationality –137 million in 2016. Chinese tourism is expanding beyond group package tours, and the demographics of those taking trips is changing. The Chinese source market is becoming increasingly segmented and younger and older travellers are joining the conventional working-age demographic of tourists.

While experienced travellers mainly live in first-tier and larger second-tier Chinese cities –there are increasing numbers of Chinese residents of smaller second-tier, as well as third-tier cities and below, that are looking to take their first trips abroad. These travellers will typically take a first trip overseas as part of a group tour.

The COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute is researching the shifting demographics of Chinese outbound tourists. Chinese outbound tourism grew by 7% in the first half of 2017 from 64 million in 2016 to 69 million says COTRI. With slow growth of just 1% to Greater China (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan), the rest of the world welcomed 14% more Chinese visitors compared to the first half of 2016.

Tourism statistics are difficult. If international arrivals are counted according to nationality, everybody is included, regardless of whether that person came from their home country for a trip or not. If you count according to residence, foreigners living in a third country, for instance a British expat working in China, will be included in arrival statistics. In many cases, the definition of residence will also differ. Most national tourism statistics are based on hotel registrations, leaving out private arrangements, small lodging providers and, Airbnb and similar services.

In China, there is also the additional problem of changes in the publication of travel statistics. In November 2014, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) stopped publishing monthly data for border crossings, changing instead to quarterly results. This changed again in 2016, since when data on outbound travel has only been provided on a half-yearly basis.

The CNTA’s means of calculating which trips are included has changed in recent years. The result is that outbound numbers from China are counted in a way meaning they are lower than they would have been under the previous method, ensuring that the official number of persons travelling into China and their expenditure figures are higher than the corresponding outbound numbers.

In 2016 the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) stopped using CNTA numbers and now is relying other Chinese sources, while COTRI began to generate its own figures in 2015, based on reports from host sources.