Addressing delegates at Arabian Travel Market 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dr Adam Wu, CEO, CBN Travel & MICE, which has offices in Beijing and London, said that China was ready for international travel – it has already opened its borders to 36 European and 13 Asian countries.

Dr Wu was speaking via video link during a conference panel session on the opening day of the show (16 May) and confirmed that according to China’s civil aviation administration, a total of 105 airlines including 19 Chinese carriers, are now flying to 55 different countries, culminating in 294 round trip flights per week.

About marketing to Chinese consumers, Dr Wu recommended, “Chinese speaking staff, a Chinese language website and post regularly on Chinese social media platforms such as DouYin (TikTok), (which as of Q1 2020 had over 800 million active users),” he commented.

China is due to reach its pre-Covid levels in 2023, when outbound traffic is forecast to reach 88 million following 108% growth in 2022 and a further 44% in 2023. The number of Chinese visitors travelling to Dubai, rose year-on-year by 15.5% to 989,000 tourists in 2019 and should be one of the M.E region’s first destinations to benefit from an overall increase in China’s appetite for overseas leisure travel.