8 Themes Affecting China’s Tourism Sector Prospects
China's tourism sector is going great guns.
The economy is growing, the average Chinese has more money in their pockets, they want to see the country. There is great demand to travel (1).
Airlines, airports, hotels, travel consolidators, not to mention destinations can expect to enjoy the benefits of the new traveling Chinese. These entities will also compete with one another (2).
China is expected to open up (3)its travel industry to foreign companies, but, that hasn't happened yet.
Additionally, China is attracting the overseas traveler (4) for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo and Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.
Two million visitors are expected for the 2008 Games alone.
Infrastructure and operations upgrade (5) – Beijing and Shanghai airports will begin operating anew this quarter. China has allocated $2.23 billion for construction of airports in western and northern China during this five year plan – 2006-2010.
Expansion into 2nd-tier cities (6) – China wants to promote a more balanced economic development throughout the country.
Fuel prices (7) are still increasing, up 48% in 2007 in China.
Lastly, a global recession (8) will have an impact on China's economy and, of course, the money that the average worker has to spend on travel.
In any event, China is not as far away as it used to be for the international traveler and the country is not as big as it used to be for the average Chinese.
The tourism industry is in good shape for the duration.
Have you ever traveled to/within China?
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