At the 2026 TravelDaily Conference’s Hotel Marketing Conference, a panel titled “The Battle for Outbound Chinese Travelers: How Are Destinations and Brands Tapping into the China Market?” offered a candid look at the state of China’s outbound travel market. If the market’s peak is behind us, how should the industry compete in the years ahead?
Moderated by Joseph Xia, managing director of VariFlight Global, the discussion featured Rita Jiang, chief commercial and marketing officer for Greater China at IHG; Helen Huang, president of MSC Cruises China and Explora Journeys China; and David Wu, head of Greater China and Southeast Asia at Visit Finland.
David Wu: I may take a more pessimistic view. I think the pre-pandemic peak of outbound travel is like being 18 years old — once it’s gone, it’s gone. While the market recorded fairly strong growth in 2024 and 2025, it still fell short of the “revenge travel” surge we had expected.
This year, the trend has become even more apparent. Since May, visitor numbers to most European destinations have declined year on year, and the summer holiday season was also disappointing. My assessment is that we are now entering an era of slower, more constrained growth in outbound travel. Much will also depend on the recovery of air routes. For Helsinki, for example, the resumption of flights has been relatively slow, and passenger traffic has consequently fallen short of expectations.
Rita Jiang: We are seeing a very clear K-shaped divergence in travel demand.
At one end are younger travelers. Having grown up in the digital age, they have a much more open sense of the world and its boundaries, and are willing to venture into completely unfamiliar places for the first time. They may choose a hotel brand they have never stayed with before, turning the trip into a memorable marker of their youth.
At the other end are older travelers, roughly 45 to 65 years old. Some have taken early retirement, while others have achieved financial independence. They have both the money and the time to travel, and tend to travel in groups, with photography, food and cultural experiences at the center of their trips.
Helen Huang: The cruise market has also changed significantly. Before the pandemic, cruises departing from Chinese homeports were more common, with short-haul itineraries to Japan and South Korea dominating the market. After the pandemic, we were pleasantly surprised to find that travelers were showing a stronger preference for longer voyages.
For example, in 2022, we began selling a 120-day world cruise departing in 2023. More than 200 Chinese guests booked the voyage — at the time, Chinese passengers were the second-largest group by nationality, behind only the French.
The traveler demographic is changing, too. Retirees used to make up the core customer base. Today, two groups have become particularly prominent.
The first is multigenerational families. A young couple might travel with their parents and children. Some younger people may choose not to marry, but still want to spend quality time with their parents, taking their mothers and fathers on a cruise.
The second is younger travelers, who are discovering that cruises offer a hassle-free way to take a vacation: convenient, predictable, efficient and relaxing. Some are simply worn out by the daily grind and see a cruise as an opportunity to lie back, switch off and truly unwind.
