Luxury tourism players are expected to be the first in the industry to see a revival of Chinese outbound travellers who will also be drawn to safe and secure hotels as well as attractive travel discounts and promotions, opined an expert in Chinese hospitality and tourism marketing technology.
Speaking on Travel Daily’s Hotel Owners, General Managers and Senior Executives Summit in June, Anita Chan, CEO of CompassEdge, noted that a McKinsey & Company study on Chinese consumer sentiment between April 9 and May 24, 2020 had found much stronger confidence in economic recovery compared to respondents elsewhere in the world.
Along the same line, luxury hotels are expected to lead an accommodation revival.
In fact, hotels in general–perceived safer in a health and safety-focused post-pandemic travel environment – were expected to be in a more favourable position than short-stay sharing economy accommodation options, like Airbnb, opined Chan.
Data from Chinese search engine, SO.com, indicated that hotel searches for domestic trips were surpassing that of short-stay sharing economy accommodation.
She predicted that future outbound travel could follow a similar trend, with Chinese travellers favouring hotels over home-sharing.
Discounts and promotions would drive Chinese outbound travel demand, as seen from the prevalence of such efforts within China by Chinese companies, including WeChat, reckoned Chan.
While OTAs elsewhere may have been associated with inflexibility, inaccessibility and unreliability during the cancellations and rescheduling caused by Covid-19, Chan noted that Chinese OTAs have responded well to the challenges. Ctrip, for instance, was able to leverage on its Global SOS Emergency Response Platform, which was launched years ago.
Read original article
