International travel from China back to pre-Covid levels by 2023

By TIN Media | Middle East Published 2 years ago on 22 May 2021
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DUBAI:

Dr Adam Wu, CEO of CBN Travel & MICE, which has offices in Beijing and London, told delegates at the Arabian Travel Market 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Centre that China was ready for international travel and that it had already opened its borders to 36 European and 13 Asian countries.

Dr Wu spoke via video link during a conference panel session on the first day of the show (16 May) and confirmed that, according to China's civil aviation administration, 105 airlines, including 19 Chinese carriers, are now flying to 55 different countries, totaling 294 round trip flights per week.

Dr. Wu recommended marketing to Chinese consumers by having “Chinese speaking staff, a Chinese language website, and posting regularly on Chinese social media platforms such as DouYin (TikTok), (which had over 800 million active users as of Q1 2020).”

Furthermore, according to a China-focused study on both traffic and shopper insights conducted by Swiss research agency m1nd-set, 2021 will mark the beginning of a robust return to growth for the retail travel sector, with an increase of more than 200 percent in international departures expected during the year to reach around

China is expected to reach pre-Covid levels in 2023, with outbound traffic reaching 88 million after a 108 percent increase in 2022 and a further 44 percent increase in 2023. The number of Chinese visitors to Dubai increased by 15.5 percent year on year to 989,000 tourists in 2019, making it one of the Middle East region's first destinations to benefit from an overall increase in China's appetite for overseas leisure travel.

Another panelist, Zayed R. Alzayani, minister of industry, commerce and tourism for Bahrain and chairman of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, revealed that it was a part of Bahrain’s international strategy to encourage more inbound tourists from China. 

“Our initial strategy was to concentrate on local and regional travel first and then focus on international travel. At the end of 2019 we were ready and committed to start a campaign to bring Chinese visitors to Bahrain. We were planning a direct flight with Gulf Air, but then the pandemic hit and all of our plans were put on hold. China remains a priority,” he said.


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