Marriott International announced 13 deal signings in Turkey comprising over 2,000 rooms.
25.08.2023 - 13:58 / skift.com / Robert Isom / Peden Doma Bhutia
Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, March 15. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
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Chinese tourists were a major force in the global travel industry before Beijing largely prevented them from traveling overseas during the pandemic. So now that they’re finally able to travel outside of China again, how is the industry adapting to changes in the enormously lucrative outbound market? Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia takes a deep look into how travel executives are preparing to serve a new kind of Chinese traveler.
As one marketing director said, the Chinese outbound tourism market is not a monolith, Simeon Shi, an executive at China-based online travel platform Fliggy, urged companies to spend more time researching consumer behavior changes. Shi said Chinese consumers are emphasizing experiences more during their travels instead of specific destinations.
In addition, Bhutia writes that many travel executives believe Chinese travelers won’t be deterred by inflation. One CEO said Chinese tourists would find ways to stay within their travel budget, often by cutting a trip short or saving money on food. Bhutia adds that Chinese travelers typically have a higher level of disposable income than their North American and European counterparts due to China’s lower cost of living. Chinese tourists spent $255 billion overseas in 2019, representing almost one-fifth of global tourism spending that year.
Next, destinations worldwide are eager to boost visitor numbers at major historical attractions. Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam writes that augmented reality could help them accomplish their goal.
Travel executives and tech providers at the recent ITB tourism conference in Berlin discussed how destinations could use augmented reality to bring new life to their pasts. Singapore is one of those destinations, and Singapore Tourism Board CEO Keith Tan said it aims to use the technology to enhance its “wow factor.” Tan added it’s looking to use augmented reality to show travelers the World War II experience at one fort.
Finally, American Airlines pilots recently expressed disbelief that their union hasn’t directly received an offer for a new contract similar to one Delta Air Lines pilots signed. However, Contributor Ted Reed writes that American is confident it will reach a deal with its pilots union soon with negotiations continuing.
Reed reports the Allied Pilots Association, American’s pilots union, was concerned when American CEO Robert Isom revealed contents of the proposal to officials in Congress instead of its negotiators. Isom said in a video that American would match Delta’s offer. Delta pilots signed a contract
Marriott International announced 13 deal signings in Turkey comprising over 2,000 rooms.
The new contract will deliver more than $9 billion of compensation and quality-of-life benefits to American’s 15,000 pilots.
The world’s biggest airline is ready for Thanksgiving, having already battled through several hurricanes in recent months.
Marketers beware: Prior ways of marketing to Chinese consumers, including travelers, won’t work as well today because their preferences changed during the pandemic.
China’s latest loosening of its stringent zero-Covid policy, mostly for domestic tourism, comes across as too little too late, at a time when the rest of the world is living with the virus.
An innkeeper in Bangkok’s Sathorn area has been desperately looking to hire more staff to cater to the increasing number of tourists at his place.
The pandemic has led to a permanent change in how we live our lives between work and the personal. No longer just a trite category called “bleisure,” the idea of blended traveling is front and center for every major travel company now. How new strategies focused on the blended traveler will emerge more clearly in 2023, as the industry recognizes the whole traveler holistically.
Chinese travelers cite financial constraints over the last three years as the leading reason for not wanting to travel abroad even as China decided to end its zero-Covid policy by easing travel restrictions, according to a report.
India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country later this year, as China begins to decline and India’s population growth shows no sign of slowing until 2064. That shift carries huge implications for travel across the globe, and has the potential to rewire the race for attracting global tourists around the world. Skift addressed this in its Megatrends 2023 package in the story India Becoming the New China in the Reordering of Asia Travel.
India is expected to overtake Germany to become the world’s third most powerful travel and tourism market by 2032, according to World Travel and Tourism Council’s Economic Impact Research.
While airlines not running international flights at the pre-pandemic level could be a short-term bottleneck, Chinese online travel agency Trip.com Group believes the country’s outbound travel will start to pick up in the second quarter when flight capacity gradually recovers.
Having battled political instability and economic crisis, a resilient tourism industry in Sri Lanka now waits for the government to do its bit to communicate to the world that the country is open to tourists.