TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
China was No. 4 source market for Dubai before the pandemic. From January to September, the emirate received 450,000 visitors from the dragon country, indicating that the market is in revival mode.
Dr. Shehara Rizly
Hoor Al Khaja, Senior Vice President – International Operations, Dubai Economy and Tourism, highlighted the importance of China as key source market, which has immensely benefitted the emirate in terms of visitor numbers, which have returned to the pre-pandemic levels.
Al Khaja said, “China has always been one of Dubai’s key source markets. If we look at pre-pandemic, it was Dubai’s number four biggest source market. Obviously, it’s one of the markets that post-pandemic took the longest time to come back online. Air capacity took a long time to ramp up. But now the market is open again. And we are seeing Dubai as one of the top markets for Chinese travellers in terms of being on their bucket list and wanting to travel.”
She added, “If we look at January to September months of 2023, we welcomed around 450,000 visitors from China. So, we are well on our way to going back to those pre-pandemic figures. We are making a lot of efforts, whether it’s with all of our trade partners in China or their global marketing efforts. We just hosted a China conference earlier this year where we flew in our top travel trade and also tech partners, partners like Ali Pei and WeChat Pei. We hosted them here in Dubai. They all came in. They met the industry from hospitality industry to retail sector. So, really all the efforts are in place to take China back to its positioning as one of Dubai’s top five source markets. And we expect to see more of that in 2024 and beyond.”
Dubai Economy and Tourism went a step further and had an interaction with Dida Travel on their outlook about the post-COVID Chinese traveller. Jinyan Li, Vice President-Global Account Management, Dida Travel, said, “Although this was already a trend pre-COVID, there has been an acceleration in the demand for luxury accommodation and experiences post-COVID from the Chinese market. Dubai and the wider GCC have been growing in demand all the time for the Chinese traveller. Group travel is still popular booked through the traditional channels, although FIT is a fast growing and relevant segment. Due to the fast-growing market segment demanding luxury experiences those destinations that can fulfil this need are in high demand.”
On the flipside, for those expats living in the GCC looking at exploring China, the recent announcement by China of a new visa-free policy for passports holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia comes at a crucial time. This policy took effect on 1 December 2023 and will last for one year. It applies to trips of up to 15 days for business travel, tourism, visiting relatives and friends and for transitioning within China. The aim of this policy is to create convenience for passport holders from these countries in order to stimulate inbound tourism.
Based on Dida Travel’s booking data, since the implementation of the recent visa-free policy, hotel bookings from the six countries named have grown by over 50 per cent from 1 December to 7 December in comparison to the previous week. In fact, hotel bookings for travellers from Spain to China have jumped by more than 100 per cent compared to the same period last week. Bookings from Italy and Malaysia to China saw an impressive increase of 50 per cent and 67 per cent week on week, respectively. Meanwhile, although the wider Chinese inbound market has not yet recovered to the pre-pandemic levels due to the fact that China’s borders fully opened in early 2023, Dida Travel’s year to date inbound hotel sales to China have seen a remarkable 151 per cent growth versus the same period in 2019. This highlights Dida Travel’s ability to outpace wider market dynamics and capture
significant new market share.
According to Dida Travel’s year to date total transaction value, Spain, Malaysia, and Italy have been among the top 20 source markets for inbound China travel in 2023. The most booked destinations in China are Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Suzhou, Langfang, Dongguan, and Wuhan.
Rikin Wu, Founder & CEO, DidaTravel, said: “We were really excited about the growth opportunity for China’s inbound tourism sector as result of this news and these initial figures are very encouraging. Thanks to proactive policies like this, which create a strong business environment for tourism, we are able to unlock the full potential of the demand.”
