When will China Allow Outbound Tourism Again?

China is the world’s biggest outbound travel market and many destinations are missing the economic benefit of Chinese tourism. The past 12 months have been an unprecedented challenge for the travel industry but now it does feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. With vaccination programs running internationally and a decline in COVID-19 cases worldwide, China’s efforts to control the pandemic may relax.  According to Zhang Wenhong, a China medical expert, China will have mostly finished vaccinating by September and could reopen to the world by October. 

China has applied a different approach to vaccinations and is offering vaccines on a voluntary basis to under '60s in the hope they can start to get the country moving forward. From a travel perspective what this means is there will be millions of potential tourists ready to travel by the summer, fully vaccinated and with money to spend. The world's largest travel market has been unable to leave China since early 2020 and are desperate to get away. During Golden Week in October last year, more than 600 million Chinese travelled around the country, generating over $68bn in revenue. The belief is that once the travel barriers open, tourists from China will be travelling internationally close to the levels pre-pandemic and overtaking them within 12 months. With Golden Week for 2021 still being 6 months away, there is plenty of potential for Chinese tourism to make a significant impact on the final quarter of the year. 

In 2019 the total number of tourists travelling internationally reached a record of 154 million, a considerable increase from the 'mere' 54m who travelled overseas in 2010. With the increase in the number of citizens who are getting passports, this figure will continue to increase at pace over the next 10 years with totals of 400m being predicted by 2030.

Reaching potential clients in China isn’t as straightforward as in the west where a well-run facebook campaign can have strong results. As is commonly known it isn't possible to use traditional social media platforms or even Google in China and in their place they have developed their own immensely popular version such as WeChat, Weibo and Baidu. These platforms each have their own similarities and differences to western social media and also offer unique eCommerce opportunities if used correctly. 

It isn’t possible to open and operate a business WeChat or Sina Weibo account without a specific licence which is why in the majority of cases companies need to use an agency. We can set-up, run and operate these accounts on your behalf using your current social media content as a basis for China campaigns, as well as running sales, special offers and promotions. At Seven Dragons Group, we can help you to implement a marketing strategy on these and ensure that your brand is visible behind 'The Great Firewall of China'.  We can assist with setting up a .cn with full translation 

 If you would like more information on this please contact us at  hello@sevendragonsgroup.com.