Facts & Views - Free content

NEW! 13.03.2024

Welcoming Foreign Visitors to China

China has taken several measures to welcome more international visitors to China again. Many cities offer visa-free stay for 72 or 96 hours for a transit stay, Hainan can be visited for two weeks with visa on arrival etc...

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29.02.2024

Looking beyond arrival numbers in Hong Kong SAR

Hong Kong SAR could welcome in 2023 a total of 26.8 million Mainland Chinese visitors, 61% of the total for 2019 of 43.8 million. That is the story arrival numbers tell us...

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21.02.2024

Hype and reality of China's outbound tourism during CNY 2024

After the slower than expected recovery of China’s outbound tourism in 2023, a lot of hype surrounded the Golden Week holidays during the Chinese New Year. Expectations were high, especially in Mainland Chinese media, which are trying hard in recent months to paint a positive and optimistic picture of China’s...

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07.02.2024

The top destinations for Chinese outbound travellers in 2023

Not surprisingly, in 2023 Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR regained some market share with more than half of all trips ending already there, almost 46 million out of the total of 74 million. Among the other main destinations only...

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31.01.2024

Hong Kong SAR back in black in Q4 2023, but still 40% below 2019 for the total year

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24.01.2024

Interview with Dr. Kurt Grötsch

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17.01.2024

25 cities and new temperature records

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14.12.2023

Chinese domestic tourism almost back to 2019 levels

China’s outbound tourism reached only 44% in arrivals compared to 2019. However, domestic tourism benchmarks can be expected to return to almost their pre-pandemic levels for 2023. The total tourism revenue has been forecasted to reach 5.2 trillion yuan (725 billion USD) for 2023...

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06.12.2023

China outbound tourist arrival up to October 2023 - slower than expected

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29.11.2023

Switzerland Facts

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25.11.2023

The COTRI China Star Consumption Index – Moving downwards for 2024

COTRI INTELLIGENCE introduces a new way to measure upscale consumption in China by locals and expats: The COTRI China Star Consumption Index uses the number of star-rated restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai as an indicator. The Guide Michelin has published since 2016 a guide which is star-rating...

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15.11.2023

Seeking truth in facts – China’s outbound tourism recovery

Deng Xiaoping, once celebrated as the architect of China’s economic rise thanks to Reform and Opening, coined the advice that it is better to seek truth in facts instead of ideology. The discussion about the speed of China’s outbound tourism renewal process has in the last few months often been not following this insight...

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08.11.2023

Hong Kong SAR – The story behind the arrival numbers

In previous issues, we discussed the fate of Hong Kong SAR in the first post-pandemic year in terms of arrival data. However, a closer look reveals an interesting development with regard to the ratio of same-day visitors to overnight visitors...

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02.11.2023

Recovery rates of selected Chinese outbound tourism destinations in the third quarter of 2023

During the period July to September 2023 the level of arrivals from Mainland China stayed for most destinations below 50% compared to the same period in 2019. Macau SAR and Hong Kong SAR were the main exception, reaching more than two thirds of the pre-pandemic level. Taiwan on the other hand saw...

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19.10.2023

Gen Z reacting to the changed economic situation of China

There was a time in China when you had to wear 3,000 USD worth of clothes you owned in a photo by one of a dozen of China's most expensive photographers in order to be able to enter an exclusive online club. Nowadays young Chinese are rather bragging about their frugal lifestyle and hope that lucky charms will help them in their quest for a meaningful life, including outbound tourism.....

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12.10.2023

ZHENG YOU – The benefits and dangers of Contentious Friendship in China today

“Pengyou” (friend) is one of the first words learned when studying Standard Chinese language (Putonghua / Mandarin), used for practically everybody you meet outside of clearly defined relations like family members, bosses or teachers. To convey the content of “friend” in the Western sense, “good friend” ....

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27.09.2023

China is a continent, not a country

In the early days of Chinese outbound tourism, tourism service providers and especially hotels encountered the challenge to provide not only Chinese lunch and dinner, for which local Chinese restaurants could be used, even though the quality outside Asia was often mediocre and the majority offering only Cantonese cuisine....

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