{"id":204006,"date":"2022-04-22T03:15:16","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T20:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ttrweekly.com\/site\/?p=204006"},"modified":"2022-04-22T05:43:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T22:43:47","slug":"no-chinese-outbound-travel-in-short-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ttrweekly.com\/site\/2022\/04\/no-chinese-outbound-travel-in-short-term\/","title":{"rendered":"No Chinese outbound travel in short-term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
SINGAPORE, 22 April 2022: Like it or not, China has kept\nmaking the headlines since the advent of the pandemic in 2020, and it’s for all\nsorts of reasons, says ForwardKeys’ latest trends update. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Covid containment and the strict zero policy that closed\noutbound tourism, there remains an unstoppable desire to shop and travel \u2013 even\nif it’s just to neighbouring Macau or Hainan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The latest news is the lockdown of one of China’s most\nimportant financial centres: Shanghai. And now, local authorities are telling\nBeijing residents to stay put ahead of the famous May holiday. But is it all\ndoom and gloom for the travel economy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile short-term prospects are not optimistic, there are\nshifts in consumer sentiment that offer a brighter outlook for the long-term,\u201d\naccording to Dragon Trail International\u2019s director of marketing and\ncommunications, Sienna Parulis-Cook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Dragon Trail’s Spring 2022 Chinese Traveller Sentiment\nSurvey shows an increase in Chinese consumers who say they’re “eager to\ntravel” and improved safety perceptions for international destinations the\nworld over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to ForwardKeys’ China Market Expert, Nan Dai,\n“Forward bookings for domestic travel in the upcoming Labour Day holiday\nmay be distressing. They are 92% behind the same period last year. However,\nsome valuable insights may ease concerns for some luxury brands and\ndestinations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tier-2 Airports\nRecover Quicker than Tier-1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Shanghai in lockdown and Beijing residents told to stay\nput for the Labour Day holiday, the two biggest source markets for domestic\ntravel may make travel professionals feel uneasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, fortunately, the latest air ticketing data from\nForwardKeys shows that the travel recovery from tier-2 cities has been\noutperforming tier-1 since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, Beijing, two airports in Shanghai, and Guangzhou\nrecovered to 59% of the pre-pandemic level, with Beijing reaching only 47% of\n2019\u2019s level, Shanghai Hongqiao at 75%, and Guangzhou at 66%, and Shanghai\nPudong at 58%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But look at the figures for non-tier-1 cities: Chengdu, with\n82% recovery, and Xi\u2019an, with 75% recovery. Chongqing and Hangzhou took third\nand fourth place, each with a recovery of 88% and 79%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another interesting trend occurred; non-hub airports\nincreased 10% shares in seat capacity in 2021. And more revealingly,\ninternational traffic concentrated more on tier-2 cities like Xiamen, Chengdu,\nand Hangzhou. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chengdu wins again with the latest government decision to\nshorten the quarantine period for international travellers. From 11 April until\n8 May, China has started a trial to reduce quarantine from 14 days to 10 days\nfor international arrivals to eight key cities. The selected gateways are\nShanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Suzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, and Xiamen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Dragon Trail\u2019s latest research, quarantine\nremains the biggest obstacle to outbound travel, with 46% of respondents saying\nthey would consider outbound travel when there is no longer any need to\nquarantine on either end of the trip. Compared to a previous survey in\nSeptember 2021, those wishing quarantine to be stricter have dropped from 36%\nto now 28%. Instead, those preferring that it stays the same have grown from\n28% to 32%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chengdu, the rising\norigin market for affluent travellers to Hainan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When examining the booking patterns for travel to Hainan, we\nsee travellers flying in premium classes were up by 2% in Q1 2022 compared to\nlast year, while economy class bookings are down by 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we break down the performance for its top source\nmarkets, Beijing and Shenzhen were the top markets for premium cabins. However,\naffluent travellers from Chengdu jumped to the third position, with significant\ngrowth of 74%,\u201d says ForwardKeys\u2019 analyst Nan Dai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shanghai\u2019s performance was affected by the recent lockdown,\nbut a general 4% growth in Q1 was thanks to an increase of 48% in January and\nFebruary. Is this the waft of opportunity for the luxury market?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While more than a quarter of respondents in Dragon Trail\u2019s\nsurvey said that shopping was a reason to visit Hainan, this was not the main\nmotivation for most travellers. 57% said their reason for visiting would be\nrelaxing on the beach, with 51% choosing water sports, 42% choosing romance,\nand 27% seeing the island as a family holiday destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This Labour Day holiday period may not show great\nsigns of promise as forward bookings are down, but we’ve learned from this\npandemic that the local tourism market in China is resilient and that\nlast-minute bookings have become the norm. Most bookings these days are made\nless than four days before departure,” says ForwardKeys’ analyst Nan Dai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Even more promising in China is the growing importance\nof Tier-2 airports on domestic and international travel. In 2021, we even saw\nseveral designer fashion brands open flagship stores at once-deemed rural\nairports.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dragon Trail asked survey respondents to rank the safety of\n15 outbound destinations. Except for Hong Kong, travellers\u2019 perceptions of\noutbound destinations as being \u201cunsafe\u201d have decreased across the board, with\nincreasing numbers categorizing the destinations either as \u201csafe\u201d or \u201cunsure\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan saw the most significant increase in safety\nperception. Even the US \u2013 which has ranked as most \u201cunsafe\u201d in all of Dragon\nTrail\u2019s sentiment surveys \u2013 has seen an improvement, with 7% categorizing it as\n\u201csafe,\u201d compared to 69% as \u201cunsafe.\u201d Just six months earlier, 87% saw the US as\n\u201cunsafe\u201d. As in previous surveys, Singapore was ranked as the safest\ndestination beyond Greater China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartening to see that while other countries around\nthe world are dropping Covid restrictions and opening to international travel,\nthis is not negatively affecting their perception by Chinese travellers. Safety\nratings have improved for every country in our survey over the last six\nmonths,\u201d added Dragon Trail International\u2019s director of marketing and\ncommunications, Parulis-Cook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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