Zero growth in Chinese travel to the U.S.
10 years of astronomical growth in Chinese tourism to the U.S. came to a grinding halt in 2018. The number of Chinese travelers making that trek has flattened, partly because of trade tensions between the two countries, said the World Travel & Tourism Council. The U.S. previously registering an average annual growth of 23% over the last decade, with China accounting for 4% of total visitors to the U.S. but 11% of all tourist spending.
Rwanda Named Most Distinctive Tourist Destination at Chinese Travel Fair
Rwanda has won the most distinctive tourist award at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair, one of the most popular travel events in China. Organized by Guangzhou Municipal Culture Radio, Television, and Tourism Bureau, the annual travel expo ran from February 21-23, 2019, and attracted more than 100 companies from 55 countries. The Rwandan embassy in China promoted tourism packages, Made-in-Rwanda products, and RwandAir, which will soon start flying to the capital city of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, in Southern China. Rwandan products were also promoted during the exhibition through live streaming on Chinese social media platforms, which attracted millions of viewers.
The Surprising Reason Why the Chinese are So obsessed with the Cotswolds
The UK has long been a popular destination for Chinese visitors, but what’s behind their curious obsession with the Cotswolds? Don’t get us wrong—we understand that this quaint corner of the country exudes a kind of classic British small-town charm, but so do other parts of Britain that aren’t so lionized by Chinese visitors. This boom in Chinese visitors to the Cotswolds, however, does seem to follow a broader global rise in Chinese tourism.
Chinese Travel to the EU Maintains an Upward Trajectory in 2018 with Robust Forward Bookings
Chinese arrivals to EU destinations climbed by 5.1% year-on-year in 2018, and forward bookings for Chinese travel to the region for the first four months of 2019 point to continued growth, according to the latest figures from the European Travel Commission (ETC) in collaboration with leading air travel analyst ForwardKeys. Some of the growth comes directly out of the EU-China Tourism Year: a 2018 initiative designed to promote the EU as a tourism destination to the fast-growing Chinese market. “Chinese tourists continue to put Europe at the top of their favourite destinations despite the relative slowdown in the Chinese economy and any concerns about Brexit,” said ForwardKeys.
Chinese Web Giants Come Together to Make “Smarter” Travel
Two of China’s biggest digital brands are collaborating in a bid to develop “intelligent tourism” in the country. E-commerce platform Baidu will deploy its Baidu Cloud platform and computing capability to help the online travel agency Ctrip to improve a range of internal and customer-facing processes. Baidu is best known for its search engine, launched in the early 2000s, but has since made a big push into artificial intelligence and other next-generation technologies. One element of the partnership will have Baidu powering personally tailored travel plans for Ctrip users based on their interests and preferences across the networks. Ctrip will also use Baidu’s platform to assist with other elements of the company—including a project to digitize the online travel agency’s customer services unit—and will use the platform to help shore up its IT infrastructure.
