Fact: Chinese tourism
China’s tough measures and lockdowns choked off the massive flow of Chinese travelers to the world.
Chinese travelers spent $277 billion abroad in 2018 and $255 billion in 2019, accounting for 20 percent of all international tourism revenue.
Source: UN World Tourism Organization and Bloomberg
The Chinese group travel ban was introduced at the beginning of 2020 as part of the country’s handling of the corona pandemic.
Earlier this year, China opened up group travel to around 60 countries, and now Beijing is giving the go-ahead for even more. According to a statement from the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture, these include the United States, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and EU countries such as Sweden.
The fact that Chinese can now once again travel here in groups is of great importance, according to Visit Sweden, which has China as a so-called focus market.
“Opportunity to come back”
Before the pandemic, in 2019, Chinese accounted for around 403,000 of a total of 17.5 million foreign guest nights in Sweden.
In the past year, when the Chinese’s travel opportunities have been smaller, it has been about only about 30,000 guest nights.
— It shows that the Chinese customer we have likes to travel in groups. Now we have the opportunity to get back to the number of guest nights we had before, says Susanne Andersson.
She describes the Chinese tourist as someone who spends a lot of money on shopping and food, and who stays for a long time. Big cities and Lapland are popular.
— It is quite a lot of money for the Swedish hospitality industry.
“Gives us the opportunity”
Susanne Andersson sees China’s decision as an encouraging signal to the country’s citizens after the harsh covid measures.
“The Chinese state wants you to go out and travel again,” she says.
TT: Is it expected that China will open up to this now?
— I had thought it would take a little longer, but I am very happy. It gives us the opportunity to prepare for next season. It takes a while for infrastructure to get going. You also have to be able to get here.
Flight routes required
To get the Chinese here, air routes are needed. There, for example, Denmark, which has been available for Chinese group travel longer than Sweden, has an advantage.
TT: How are the flight possibilities?
— Some things have started. But this gives airlines that haven’t flown for a while the opportunity to fly again. We must constantly guard the Arlanda hub, versus the Oslo–Copenhagen hub. When trips to Denmark opened earlier, it strengthened their hub for intercontinental airlines, says Susanne Andersson.
At the same time, the global situation creates uncertainty. Finnish Finnair, with a large market in Asia, for example, can no longer fly over Russia.
— The cloud of worry in this gratification is the availability