400 Million Opportunities with Chinese Tourists
The cases are packed. The flights, trains and buses are booked, and the cars have had a polish, in what will be another period of Chinese tourism en masse. Aside from the Spring Festival, there's no bigger movement of Chinese travellers than the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day-Golden week combo which starts tomorrow. Unlike Spring Festival, when the vast majority of Chinese return home to family, this break is for leisure travel. Between now and October 7, tourist operators from Amsterdam to Auckland will see a good share of the 94 million Chinese travelling overseas this year. Chinese have become the world's biggest spenders on international tourism, dropping $102 billion last year, 40% more than in 2011; and they'll be spending up a storm over the next few weeks.
While the holiday period is especially a boon for hotels, airlines, tourism operators and luxury retailers, it is also an opportunity for the Chinese to show the world that there's more to them than noisy, bus-hopping tour groups. As China's global importance and connectedness increases, the Government understands the value of soft power and how its army of tourists can be some of the best, or worst, ambassadors it has. The 15-year old kid from Nanjing who defaced an ancient sculpture in Egypt, although abominable, may have done China a favour. He appears to have been the catalyst for the latest Government initiative to educate Chinese about behaving better overseas. National TV has been broadcasting nightly clips enlightening Chinese tourists about what's appropriate abroad, and new laws should encourage travellers to respect local customs and traditions a little more.
Well-behaved or not, Chinese travellers are going to make a massive impact globally. President Xi Jinping believes 400 million Chinese will travel abroad within five years. By 2033, Boeing are banking on Chinese airline fleets growing three-fold. As tourist operators, there are plenty of quick wins and longer term initiatives to capitalise on the growth, raising awareness with tourists and improving their experience - encouraging them to spread the word online and offline. Likewise, for products and services targeting consumers in China that are not directly related to tourism, some smart marketing can create brand ambassadors of visiting Chinese who will have a positive affinity with your country, and by association, with your brand. There's no shortage of opportunities.
For our China-based readers joining the masses on holiday, we hope it's a great one. In the meantime, there are some good insights below to think about on the beach.
Here are this week's news and highlights for China:
Chinese Consumers
Scenes From 21st-Century China: A stunning snapshot of modern-day China and the new faces of China.
Many Chinese 'Cannot Speak Mandarin': 400 million or 30% of China's population cannot speak Mandarin according to China's Education Ministry [only viewable outside of China].
How WeChat is Reshaping the Way Chinese Consumers Shop: 2 min 30 video starring China Skinny's Tracy Dai, showing the powerful new WeChat feature that could reshape the way Chinese consumers shop.
Tourism
Chinese Tourists Encouraged to Behave While Abroad: From Oct 1 a new law hopes to ensure Chinese tourists behave well and respect local customs and traditions. Chinese TV has been airing educational clips to promote polite tourist behaviour.
Chinese Airline Fleets 'To Triple In Size': Boeing is bullish about sales to Chinese airlines who are expected to triple their fleet sizes in the next 20 years to account for increased tourism and business travel.
Chinese White-Collar Travelers Demanding Quality: 78.7% of urban white-collar leisure travelers from China generally favored resorts, 48.9% favoured overseas branded hotels and 36% boutique hotels. Chinese tourists spent $102 billion on tourism last year, 40% more than 2011. 58% of European hotels planned to add Mandarin speakers to their staff, and 57% planned to translate their website.
China's Online Travel Bookings To Double By 2015: Online sales account for 15% of travel booking in China, however in 2012 online air bookings grew 50% and hotels were up 37%. Mobile bookings are predicted to account for 20% of all travel bookings by 2015, growing 560% this year alone.
Thailand to Scrap Luxury-Goods Tax to Lure China Travelers: Thailand is to cut its 30% import duties on luxury watches, clothes and cosmetics in hope of luring more Chinese tourists.
Internet, eCommerce, Mobile & Social Media
Taobao New Mobile Visitors Surpassed 100M in H1 2013: Chinese mobile consumers in Tier 1 cities are spending an average of 18.5 mins on Taobao, with Tier 3 & 4 consumers spending over 20 minutes. Meanwhile, some Chinese retailers are downgrading their shop space by as much as 15% due to the the growth of online shopping.
JD terminates link with Weibo: Things are getting dirty online in China: first Alibaba blocked WeChat, now JD has blocked Weibo.
WeChat Authentication, Zombie Followers For Sale on Taobao: They're coming ... Zombie WeChat followers are now for sale on Taobao.
Is Anti-Rumour Crackdown Silencing Voices of Online Dissent at Weibo?: Three years in jail doesn't appeal to China's influential Weibo users, with their post numbers down 11.2% on average since the new laws have been announced. Some have gone as far as deleting contentious old posts.
Video: The Next Battleground For China’s Internet Giants: Video apps are the fastest growing apps class in China, with average session times growing from 9 minutes to 31 minutes in the past year. There are 160 million mobile video viewers in China.
Apple's Low-End Phone Price Disappointing: Close to 90% of Chinese consumers surveyed believe the 'cheap' iPhone 5C is still too expensive and have no interest in the new smartphone.
Food and Beverage
German Hairy Crab Import Fails to Materialize: 35,000 online pre-orders of German hairy crabs totaling $1.5 million had to be cancelled as the vendor didn't have the permission to sell or import into China. Customers are entitled to a full refund + 30% additional compensation.
Chinese Consumers Are Hungry for More: More examples of Western companies adapting to Chinese needs such as Quaker's white fungus and wolfberry oatmeal.
Health and Beauty
114 Million Diabetics in China as Rising: 114 million Chinese have been diagnosed with diabetes, up 22 million since the last count in 2007. About 1% of Chinese had diabetes in 1980. The increase is "unparalleled" globally; likely to be influenced by Chinese consumers' change of diet and lifestyle, but also from improvements in diagnosis. 40% of 18-29 year olds are believed to be on the verge of the disease, which is contributing to the 20% year on year growth of drugs sales in China.
China Consumer Protection: Cosmetic Changes?: Olay, L’Oreal and Nivea have been slammed by Chinese state media for having too much air in packaging where they ought to have face cream. The allowed ratio is less than 50% for cosmetics.
Chinese Breaking Old Color Barriers With Hair Dye: Chinese women dye their hair 1.9 times a year versus 5 times in the West. 46% of Chinese women have hair treatment. L'Oreal has specially launched gray-coverage service for Chinese high end salons in a bid to attract male customers in first tier cities.
Fashion
How a Chinese eShopping Site Turns its Users into Models: Vancl, China's biggest clothing-only e-retailer is hoping to reverse lower market share by encouraging customers to send in photos of themselves modelling their clothes. This allows Chinese consumers to see how other females look in the garb, and rate them, in an eCommerce/social media hybrid.
Property
Chinese Landlords in London: Many Chinese property investors in London aren't from Shanghai and Beijing, but from Tier 2 & 3 cities.
Auto
Slumping Retail Sales: The absurd financing deals car dealerships are offering to shift more cars in China.
Luxury Goods
For Rich Mainlanders, Hong Kong Loses Luxury Luster: 35 million Mainland Chinese travel to HK every year, about five times it's population, accounting for around a third of retail spending in HK. However, their spending growth is slowing, with spending on some luxury items actually dropping. Alcohol and tobacco declined 20%.Chinese Mainly Bought Luxury Brands in HK, Macao: Nevertheless, the portion of Chinese luxury purchases in HK and Macau soared from 26% to 44% in a year. Perfume & cosmetics were the most popular category with ordinary Chinese, jewellery with the wealthy.
New Chinese Luxury: Pairing Wine With Duck, Not Sprite: As luxury companies have to work harder in China to justify the hefty price tag, retailers are offering in-depth lessons in appreciating art, wine, designer clothes, whiskey, and more.
That's The Skinny for the week! China Skinny would love to discuss how we could help you make the most of the rise of Chinese travellers, or with your general marketing, online initiatives or research to take advantage of China's opportunities. Just email us at info@chinaskinny.com or call us at +86 21 3221 0273 so we can learn more about your objectives and let you know how we can help.
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