Winter is coming with Chinese searching for experience in Europe

In a few days the New Chinese Year will be celebrated as the Year of the Dog. As usual, Chinese people will enjoy holidays and will travel, mainly abroad.

But also for Christmas, even if it’s not an official holiday, many Chinese travel abroad and Jing Daily published an article that describes the figures of Ctrip regarding the most popular destinations. There are two categories of most favourite holidays during winter time. The first one is to escape from the cold winter and to rest in a warmer destination; the second is to live a Christmas experience with some additional seasonal activities.

Beyond Turkey, the top warmer destinations are non-EU ones, also due to the season climate.

Skiing is becoming more and more popular among those who prefer the cold Christmas atmosphere, also because Beijing will host the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.

Moreover, there is an increasing demand for experience such as watching the northern lights, skiing, Arctic and Antarctic explorations, whale watching, and hot springs.

Source: Jing Travel

That’s the reason why, among the trending destinations, the Scandinavian regions are popular, such as Finland and Norway, and Iceland recorded a + 400% yoy. Young couples and married couples accounts for the 60% of tourists while families for the 40%.

Also thanks to the 2018 EU-China Year of Tourism, European destinations must overcome in attracting Chinese tourists.

As reported by Jing, in 2017 UK doubled international arrivals from China, attracted by weak pound, convenient direct flights and from the Open Skies Agreement that assured better travel facilitations that the EU and USA ones. By consequence, a stronger pound and possible restrictions for the Schengen area due to an hard-Brexit, may reduce the performances.

At Twissen we recorded a strong competition on the outbound Chinese market. Tourist flows from this Country are supported by visa facilitation and convenient logistic, but at the same time, by attractive tourist products that satisfy the expectations and by technological aspects, such as the payment methods.

 



Author: Francesco Redi
President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.

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