Market Overview
Key insights from the Market Snapshot, Latest Insights and General Market Conditions chapters
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Global Context
International tourism expenditure (US$bn): 102
Global rank for international tourism expenditure: 1
Number of outbound visits (m): 46.8
Most visited destination: Hong Kong
Inbound to the UK in 2012
179,000 visits, accounting for 0.6% of all overseas visits to the UK
4 million nights, accounting for 1.7% of all nights in the UK by overseas visitors
£300m spent, accounting for 1.6% of the total spent whilst in the UK by overseas visitors
Compared to five years ago there has been a 25% increase in visits, a 40% increase in nights and a 69% increase in spend
Latest Insights
China's new tourism law kicked in at the beginning of October, seeking to better protect tourists from misleading pricing and practices engaged in by some travel businesses. While there have been grumbles from the trade about a downturn in business this autumn due to the necessity of increasing tour prices to make up for the abolition of tours sold below cost that then included forced tipping or shopping trips to generate commission, the China National Tourism Administration has commented that this in fact shows that the law has had a positive impact and that the market is currently normalising, with any temporary downturn feeding into the long-term health of the industry. However, examples are already being cited of travel businesses managing to skirt the new regulation by rebranding tours as independent travel packages — only for travellers to find themselves part of a larger group of 'independent' travellers when they arrive at their destination.
Media coverage was all positive on the latest alterations made to the British visa application process, announced during George Osborne’s visit to China in October. Three key measures were announced, namely the introduction of a pilot scheme allowing selected Chinese travel agents to apply for UK visas by submitting the EU’s Schengen visa form, the implementation of a new 24-hour ‘super priority’ visa service from summer 2014, and consideration of the expansion of the VIP mobile visa service beyond Beijing and Shanghai to the rest of the country, sending visa teams to applicants in order to collect their forms and biometric data.
General Market Conditions
China’s population of 1.3 billion is still growing at 0.5% per annum
More than 400,000 UK residents describe their ethnicity as Chinese
In 2011/12 almost 80,000 Chinese born students were enrolled to UK Higher Education establishments
China is expected to account for 19% of the global economy by 2018 and is now the world’s largest producer and consumer of cars
By 2022 the number of urban households that can be described as ‘affluent’ or ‘upper middle class’ is set to number 225 million
There are an estimated 643,000 High Net Worth Individuals in China, with the typical millionaire aged in their late 30s and most saying that they intend to send their children abroad for at least part of their education
While English is taught at school those most proficient tend to be found working in companies that frequently deal with western countries
The ‘Mid Autumn Festival’ is an increasingly popular time for taking a foreign trip
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