Travel takes place throughout the whole year. As about half of outbound travel is for business and official travel, it is not reliant on peak seasons. Domestic and regional travel is often booked at the last minute. This is also true for European destinations, as the agent could not know if the visa application was successful until one or two days prior to departure. With more information available on the overseas destination (climate, prices, attractions, events etc.) and more accessible visa procedures, customers have started planning longer ahead. Nowadays agents can advertise tours one or two months in advance and receive bookings, safe in the knowledge that a tourist visa can be obtained.

·      Paid holidays

Paid holidays are not common, which is why people tend to travel only during the public holidays for private travel. A public discussion to introduce more paid holidays in order to spread the tourism flow throughout the year resulted in a change to the holiday leave system in China from 2008. Employees won the right for 5 to 15 days of paid leave in addition to (shorter) public holidays.

Employees of International companies or foreign-invested companies enjoy better holiday conditions, with a sliding scale of paid holiday each year additional to the national public holidays, based on years in service. These white-collar workers are also higher paid and form an attractive potential market sector for outbound travel.

·      Public holidays and school vacations

The public holidays were extended from 3 to 7 days in 1999, creating the opportunity for people to travel at their own expense (private travel). Private travel is now mainly concentrated during the public holidays. The school vacations take place around Chinese New Year (4 weeks) and in summer (July and August). Travelling with the family is a new phenomenon as these extended holidays have only recently been introduced.

China has implemented a strict one-child policy during the last twenty-five years. Families in the cities have one child only. Families from the countryside are allowed to have two children. Travelling is also often considered an educational experience for the only child. When a family goes travelling it might also include the grandparents, making it three generations and a terrific challenge for the travel planner.

The spring festival is a time for families to meet and spend time together. The preferred destinations for this holiday are warm places closer to home. Domestic destinations and South East Asia are the popular choice. During October and May, more holidays were taken to long haul destinations. Many people took up to two weeks holiday during these periods. However from May 2008, the May week-long holidays was shortened to 3 days only and new public holidays were introduced.

As the concept of paid holidays is relatively new in China, people often travel with the excuse of business or official travel.

For the past 4 years I have had the pleasure of meeting great people around the world with a keen interest and passion for learning about China, her people and business environment. Despite the global recession that put the breaks on the global tourism industry, China continues to steam ahead in its growth and is sure to become a key market for most tourist destinations around the world in the years to come.

For me personally, the journey of setting up a new company with a mission to bring more clarity and understanding about China’s tourism industry was a fascinating, stimulating and rewarding experience. Through our China tourism industry forum at World Travel Market and public talks at various events, I think that ChinaContact helped to bridge some of the gap between China and the rest of the world in the field of tourism. I enjoyed the process of working with destinations and tour operators in different countries that had the foresight to invest in the China market before it becomes too crowded. I encourage those that have not yet done so, to develop a China strategy and begin the long process of establishing a brand presence there.

It is time for me to follow the next evolution in my career and join a larger organisation with the tools and resources to effect a real change in the industry. I am pleased to announce that effective Monday ,14th September, I will be joining Expedia.com, based in London. The role will focus on business development.

Due to this move, ChinaContact is ceasing all business trading activities with immediate effect. Our website has become a central resource for information, research and useful links for companies and destinations wishing to grow their tourism business in China. I would like this to continue along with the ChinaContact Tourism Network that currently has nearly 700 members. I’ve asked my trusted suppliers to continue to offer their services and you can make contact with them through www.chinacontact.org at a preferred rate.

COTRI offer a quality certification label and a membership based online resource for research and advice on China outbound tourism, which can be found at http://www.win-chinese-tourists.com/

With the advent of a bilateral tourism agreement signed between the US and China at the end of 2007, the Chinese industry was excited about the prospects of a new shining and sought after destination for their clients. Equally excited were the US state and city tourism promotion bodies and private tour operators eager to find a new revenue stream as America’s tourism industry suffers from a global economic downturn. Many tourism promotion bodies opened representative offices or appointed sales representatives in China in anticipation of the tourism boom. From July 2008, Chinese tour groups began to travel to the US on a tourist visas. The weakness of the US Dollar in relation to the Chinese Yuan means stronger purchasing power for Chinese consumers, who are on the whole aspiring to visit the America they see in cinema and television.
We would advise caution in reading too much into this new agreement. Even before it was inked, Chinese traveled to the US on so-called business tour groups and estimates put them at around 400,000 per year. The US authorities expect tourism to grow to 500,000 in 2011. This is a very slow, controlled and unambitious figure that makes it difficult for destinations in the US to realize returns on their investment in the Chinese market quickly.