Invite colleagues
The travel industry in China has been going through a roller-coaster ride over the last 12 months. With the success of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese Government was hoping to have inundated international travelers visiting Beijing. This is also the usual post-effect of hosting the Olympics.
However, the bust of Lehman Brothers and the following up global financial crisis, far less international visitors than expected came to visit China. The H1N1 epidemic certainly did not help on the inbound visits. Consequently, the number of inbound visitors was down by 8% in the 1st half of 2009 compared with that of 2008 (CNTA, 2009).
Although China bypassed the global financial crisis, companies, MNCs in China in particular, more or less were affected by the global financial crisis in the 1st half of 2009. Consumers were concerned about their job security more than before. Even among those who initially wanted to make trips, the H1N1 epidemic was the other major concern by Chinese travelers. Safety of the destination is always one of the top key factors when Chinese travelers consider where to travel.
As a result, the China travel industry experienced the difficult time in the 1st half of 2009. With the spread of news on the signs of global recovery, the October eight day holiday becomes the perfect opportunity for Chinese consumers to relax and get ‘recharged’. What we see in the forthcoming October holiday is that domestic travel is going to surge. It is estimated that more than 200million domestic travelers. Moreover, most outbound trips, international long haul trips in particular, have been sold out, according to Karen Xu at Ctrip, one of the major online travel agencies in China. The surge of the number of travelers during the October holiday may be seen as the sign of rebound for the China travel industry.
Written on Sunday, 27 September 2009 20:47 by Grace Pan
