Elections and the 25th city
This is the first edition for 2024, the Christmas break took a bit longer than expected. Of course all subscribers will have their subscription prolonged accordingly.
2023 has been confirmed by now to have been the hottest year on record and the new year immediately starting with record frost in Scandinavia, heatwaves in Australia and real high waves at the coast of California, while the area around the headquarter of COTRI in Hamburg was widely flooded by unprecedented levels of rainfall. In the USA, football games had to take place at temperatures of -20 degrees C.
Politically, the elections in Taiwan brought not the result the Mainland Chinese government had wished for. However, without a majority of seats in the assembly, it remains to be seen how much wiggle room will be left for the new president between Beijng and the opposition in his own parliament.
China welcomed the 25th city which made it over the hurdle of having a one trillion RMB GDP in one year. The complete list is in the Facts and Views part of COTRI INTELLIGENCE.
COTRI participated in the first week of the new year in Shiraz in Southern Persia in the 13th Pars Tourism and Handicrafts Fair. COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute shared a stand at the fair with the sister organisation Meaningful Tourism Center.
The fair was so well visited that the original opening hours from 15 to 21 h had to be extended for the last two days by more than an hour in the evening. The current situation of China’s outbound tourism and the outlook especially for Iran was presented and discussed at the stand with many visitors, from tourism ministers and ambassadors to many eager and interested students. Hundreds of photos had to be taken with “the professor”.
As part of the program your humble editor could furthermore welcome more than 100 participants to a China outbound tourism workshop in the morning of the 4th of January. The Iran received a growing number of package tour groups in 2023, however, the business is tightly controlled by some Chinese residing in Iran in cahoots with the local airline Mahan.
In fact, Iran could easily rank among the Top 10 tourism destinations for Chinese, given the richness of culture and heritage, the hospitality of its inhabitants, the diversity of regional and minority cultures in dress, food, music etc. and the landscapes offering everything from high mountains to beaches in close vicinity to China.
The visit to Iran is also the reason why this weeks edition of COTRI INTELLIGENCE includes as Topic of the week an analysis of China’s outbound tourism to Iran. The Deep Dive uses the start of the new year for a more general outlook to the future of international tourism and the need to change it from its current structure. The Facts and News graph shows details about the global warming in 2023 and lists the 25 economically most successful cities in China. In the News you will find as always selected news items about different aspects of the Chinese outbound market.
The edition of COTRI INTELLIGENCE includes as usual the COTRI weekly Editorial, the text “China this week”, the News and the COTRI News in the free content part. For the Topic of the Week, the Deep Dive consulting and the Facts and Views we invite you to consider a Premium or Premium Plus subscription and offer a special welcoming subscription for one month, celebrating the upcoming Year of the Dragon, with a 59% discount here: https://cotri-intelligence.ghost.io/welcoming-offer.
Enjoy this week’s new content and the growing library of previous articles! All best wishes to our readers from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt and the entire COTRI INTELLIGENCE team!