According to a study by Ipk International, presented at the recently concluded ITB China in Shanghai and which brought together more than 10,000 participants from the Chinese travel industry, China would be ready to regain its role as a major source market for The tourism industry and cultural travel would be the driving force behind this recovery.
What has changed after the pandemic
While in 2019 China was the fourth largest source market in the world with around 70 million trips, in 2022 it was overtaken by many countries with significantly higher recovery rates, due to severe and prolonged travel restrictions that significantly slowed the recovery.
But today we are witnessing a reversal of the trend: according to the results of the latest survey conducted by Ipk, the Chinese desire to travel has indeed returned with force. Indeed, around 50% of those surveyed intend to go abroad in the next 12 months and, if possible, more often than in the past; An additional 44% would like to take as many trips abroad as in 2019.
Longing for Europe
Another encouraging fact is that European destinations are the most preferred, followed by Asian destinations, while travel to America is little considered due to both lack of flight options and geopolitical reasons.
But not only. The great interest of the Chinese in cultural destinations is confirmed, with 44% of those traveling to Europe intending to focus mainly on cities with historical and museum heritage. Finally, the budget allocated by the Chinese to tourism is not expected to be significantly reduced, particularly because 80% of respondents in the Ipk survey said they planned to stay in hotels over the next twelve month.
The MICE sector
As before the pandemic, outbound business travel is also once again an important market: around 30% of Chinese surveyed plan an outbound business trip by 2024, with a strong trend in outbound travel. favor European destinations.
And visas?
With many travel restrictions lifted and visas being issued more quickly again, even for important destinations, this provides further impetus to the widespread resumption of outbound travel in China and, according to the survey Ipk, in the medium term In the long term, there is a good chance that the market will return to 2019 levels by the end of 2025. Although this process will take longer than in the large source markets of Europe and North America.
And if you are planning to go to China soon, we suggest you consult the France Diplomatie website which contains up-to-date information on the visas required for travelers from France:
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux-voyageurs/conseils-par-pays-destination/chine/#entree
