EUROPE: Chinese Air Travel Shoots Up, Europe Gains A Great Deal

Europe is set to benefit from increasing Chinese air travel with extra flights and more capacity for 2018.

The continent will see a boom in capacity on flights from China, according to the latest figures from travel pattern analyst ForwardKeys.

It reports that nine new routes and one resumed route will start during the first half of 2018, and a further three are in the pipeline.

At least four China-Europe routes are already planned for the second half of this year.

This follows an expansion in Chinese flights to the US and Australia over the past two years.

ForwardKeys predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million booking transactions a day.

According to its statistics, by June there will be an extra 30 flights a week from China to Europe and, based on an estimation of 200 seats per flight.

This means 6,000 more seats will be available for Europe-bound Chinese travellers.

Excluding Russia, the average total number of seats available each week last summer was 150,000.

In March alone new flights include:

- Twice weekly from Shenzhen to Madrid by Hainan Airlines.

- Resumption of three times weekly flights from Shenyang to Frankfurt by Lufthansa.

- Twice weekly from, Shenzhen to Brussels by Hainan Airlines in March 2018.

Finland is benefiting from a strong Asia strategy on the part of Finnair, which announced the opening of its seventh direct Chinese route in May 2018.

Spain, the UK and Ireland are seeing a mix of increased tourism alongside healthy Chinese business investment.

This growth will be building on an already strong start to the year.

Europe had a 10% market share of the outbound Chinese market and saw a 7.4% increase in Chinese travellers during January and February this year.

Turkey recovery after terrorist attacks increased by 108.2%, and Greece by 55.7%, compared to the same period last year.

Travel in the opposite direction is also set to increase.

Flight bookings to China, in the coming six months, from the rest of the world, are 11.8% ahead of this time last year.

Bookings from Americas, which is responsible for 25% of travel to China, are currently 24% ahead of last year.

The EU-China Tourism Year was launched in Venice in January, heralded as the largest-ever official EU-wide initiative to grow Chinese tourism across Europe.

ForwardKeys chief executive and co-founder, Olivier Jager, said It seems that the EU-China Tourism Year is having a positive impact on travel in both directions.

The Chinese have been growing in confidence for international travel for some time now and that trend is being reciprocated.

Europe clearly has a lot to gain from this increased capacity because the Chinese are ready to spend money on luxury goods while on holiday, providing good opportunities for European retailers.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Chinese Tour Operators Visit Europe

As part of the EU-China Tourism Year, major TO's from across China were hosted in Europe on a fam tour this month.

The European Travel Commission (ETC), the European association of National Tourism Boards, in partnership with the European Tourism Association (ETOA) and several European destinations, hosted the first pan-European familiarisation trip to foster inbound tourism to the European Union from China on the occasion of the EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY).

From 8 March to 15 March 2018, 70 qualified tour operators from first and second tier cities across China -including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Wuhan, Nanjing and Xiamen- had the opportunity to experience European destinations through and beyond its famous gateway cities.

The Chinese tour operators organised into seven clusters that followed simultaneously different transnational itineraries based on their singular interests and product portfolio.

These destination clusters included fifteen countries in the macro-regions of the Adriatic, the Balkans, the Baltic, Benelux and Central Europe.

The itineraries included visits to landmark cities, cultural and natural attractions and meetings with local business as well as experiences at lesser-known destinations that are easily accessed from those traditional gateways.

The programme commenced with the Partnerships in European Tourism (PET) conference and B2B workshop between tourism-related European companies and Chinese operators hosted by ETC, ETOA and the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA) in Berlin on 6 and 7 March.

Both initiatives the pan-European FAM trips and the Partnerships in European Tourism are part of the programme of activities prepared by the European Commission during the EU-China Tourism Year.

The ECTY aims to promote the European Union as a travel destination in China, provide opportunities to increase bilateral cooperation as well as mutual understanding and create an incentive to make progress on market opening and visa facilitation.

China is the world’s largest travel market in terms of both outbound travel and expenditure. European destinations have strengthened their position in this market, attaining 13.4 million Chinese arrivals in 2017, accounting for a share of 14% of all outbound travel from China.


Tourism Observer