Mideast travel, tourism sectors hopeful for stepping up Chinese market

Middle East businesses looking to attract more Chinese tourists need to set their agenda right and ensure proper marketing and distribution channels in order to benefit from China's recovering outbound tourism, a forum heard on May 2.

At a panel discussion titled "China Is Back On The Map: Macro and Micro Impacts" during the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, industry insiders and experts called on travel and tourism-related businesses to identify their target segments clearly in terms of visitors and reaching those segments efficiently through various channels, including social media.

"You need to look at the locality of where your property is. Are you in a business district where you need to focus more on the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) traveler, or are you more of the leisure traveler? I think it's the first thing you need to establish," said Peggy Li, managing partner at SPS: Affinity, a service-centric global strategy and communications consultancy in Dubai.

Li said online travel agencies can help tourism-related businesses in drawing attention to their facilities but being over dependent on them could become a burden, given the limitations of such agencies. So, businesses have to do some marketing on their own, with social media an important route to spread awareness.

"I always look at WeChat and XiaoHongShu. The two (Chinese social media platforms) are probably must-haves for any hotels or any tour operators," said Li.

Winnie Chiu, president at Dorsett Hospitality International, noted that air travel "is not back yet" with regard to the Chinese market. Consumer habits have also changed, such as the increasing use of contactless technology, which is not only being seen in the Chinese travel market but also globally.

Also, "with Chinese travelers and social media, the other thing you would go into is distribution. What are the distribution channels, because like all other source markets, you have unique distribution channels," said Chiu.

"How do you focus on the Chinese distribution channel? How do you really use what you talk about on social media? First, you engage. After you engage, direct them to distribution channels and of course, last but not the least, is payment gateway. These are trends you need to follow as operators," she added.

According to a report "Fast Steps Towards Recovery: Chinese Traveler Sentiment Report ATM Dubai Edition" released by Dragon Trail International, a marketing solutions company, Chinese travel plans for 2023 are still largely undecided. Twenty-six percent of respondents in a survey said they hoped to travel overseas but have not a booked trip yet, while 27 percent were unsure if they will travel outbound this year.

Safety was the biggest concern holding back Chinese travelers. Meanwhile, Asia was the leading destination with 75 percent saying they plan to visit Asian destinations in 2023. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao SAR and Thailand topped the list of preferred destinations for the Chinese mainland travelers.

Beyond Asia, Europe stood out as the top international travel destination at 15 percent, followed by Oceania at 4.5 percent while only 0.83 percent considered traveling to the Middle East and 0.67 percent to Africa.

In regard to the Middle East, the UAE and Saudi Arabia were the two Arab destinations named by survey respondents, while Egypt was the top choice in Africa.

In an interview with China Daily on the sidelines of the ATM, Sienna Parulis-Cook, director, marketing and communications for Dragon Trail International, said although the Middle East "may look more like a niche destination", even a niche destination has huge opportunities when it comes to the Chinese market "because the market is so big".

And beyond looking at the mass market of Chinese travelers, Parulis-Cook said experienced Chinese travellers, be it luxury travelers or young, adventurous tourists, see Middle East featuring "much more prominently in terms of places that they want to visit".

One of the very good advantages of the Middle East right now is that flight connectivity has recovered faster than for other regions, according to Parulis-Cook.

Flight connectivity "is still lagging for most regions and that's one of the things that's affecting the recovery of Chinese outbound tourism," she said.

However, the Middle East region "has the best recovery of flight capacity right now. So that's something that will bring tourism," Parulis-Cook said. "Visa-free policies in the UAE will attract tourism, too. So I think it's really just kind of the beginning and there's very, very strong potential for Chinese tourism to this region."

ATM trade show ran from May 1 to 4 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.