Are Chinese tourists returning to the UK post-Covid?

China’s National Day Holiday – better known as ‘Golden Week’ – usually sees a wave of Chinese tourists visit the UK, but this year, fewer than expected have arrived. Tom Pattinson finds out why

Pre-covid, China’s international tourism spend, at £225 billion, was the most of any country in the world – almost double that of the USA in second place, whose citizens collectively spent £117 billion in 2019. Much of that spending went to China’s Asian neighbours, with Thailand, Japan and Vietnam making up the top three foreign travel destinations for Chinese travellers.

But thanks to Europe’s Schengen visa system that allows Chinese tourists to visit 27 EU countries on one visa, more and more tourists from China have been flying further afield to appreciate the history, culture, cuisine and, most importantly, shopping in Europe, with France being the number one European destination.

Although the UK doesn’t belong to Schengen, inbound tourism to the UK from China has also risen drastically in recent years, rising from 192,000 visits in 2009 to 1.01 million in 2019. This is in part due to the rapidly growing number of middle-class Chinese who have the spending power to travel, but also because Britain has been at the forefront of attracting the deep-pocketed tourists to our shores, with a wealth of experiential offerings, from attending football games and whisky tastings to visiting royal palaces.

Britain’s soft power has done a lot to attract tourists, but now a concerted effort is being made to ease the path for Chinese tourists to visit the UK. Initiatives including Chinese language signage, specially created apps, WeChat and Alipay payment options, and even Chinese breakfasts at hotels are all helping to attract China’s new generation of wealthy tourists.

However, things came to an abrupt halt during the pandemic as global travel was put on hold. In 2021, a mere 17,000 Chinese visitors came to the UK as restrictions from both sides were put in place and flight routes were cancelled. This figure crept up to just 73,000 in 2022.

Although China re-opened earlier this year and international flights have now resumed (albeit not to pre-pandemic levels), the number of Chinese tourists coming to the UK is still lower than expected. Visit Britain predicts Chinese tourist numbers to reach 250,000 in 2023 – just a quarter of pre-pandemic levels.

This is in part due to the Covid hangover and a global economic downturn, but Beijing’s ban on tour groups visiting the UK – which was only removed in August 2023 – has been the biggest factor. Tour groups have traditionally made up nearly half of all Chinese travel to the UK, with the remainder being made up of independent travellers, business travellers and governmental delegations.

The Covid-era tour group ban, however, has been one of the factors contributing to the rise of the free and independent traveller (FIT). According to Champa Selim, Deputy Director of Greater China and South East Asia at Bicester Village, the majority of visits to the Oxfordshire shopping village have been FITs.

China’s FITs have been on the rise for years. Younger, wealthier tourists have been eager to move away from the constraints of package tours and focus their trips on their specific interests. Some might be coming to the UK for shopping, others for sports. Some might be eager to visit stately homes or hike in the hills, while others might be happy to discover Liverpool or Manchester’s nightlife.

“Most FITs are high net worth individuals, visiting their children who are at university or business or property investors,” says Selim. “Over the past months, there have been a lot of business and government visitors as it is easier for them to get travel permits,” she says.

When the ban on tour groups was lifted in August 2023, there was an expectation that Chinese tourists would flood back in and indulge in ‘revenge spending’. But tour companies need time to ramp up their marketing, potential tourists haven’t had much notice, and the logistics and paperwork required to get passports, visas and flights have long lead times. The upshot is that nowhere near as many Chinese tourists made it to the UK in time for October’s Golden Week holidays.

However, Selim says that the big numbers will start to come back from Chinese New Year 2024. “I’m pretty confident that numbers will get back up to pre-covid numbers,” she says. “But things can happen quickly to impact China-UK relationships.”

Selim goes on to explain that post-covid tourism will see more FITs than before as the percentage of independent travellers will overtake those on package tours, and that the visitors will be made up of younger and more affluent groups. In 2022, Chinese tourists were among the youngest in the world, with 57% being between the ages of 18 and 34.

It is important that Chinese tourists do return soon, as many in the hospitality industry now rely on Chinese tourists to fill in the gap in the annual calendar. China’s two biggest holidays, Chinese New Year and Golden Week, occur during the UK’s low season: Chinese tourists help fill hotels in the cold January and February months and during the downturn in October after the British school holidays are over.

Another reason many tourist venues are eager to attract Chinese tourists is that their average stay is much longer at 16.33 nights, and with an average spend of £1,937 per person per trip, they are also the highest spenders per head. Chinese tourists are also much less London-centric than most European travellers, happy to travel to other areas, such as Bicester, to shop, Windsor for the royals, and other cities such as Manchester and Liverpool due to the high number of students in those areas.

And with more than 150,000 Chinese students in the UK, the value of visiting family members is also not to be downplayed, as they are usually FIT travellers and in the highest income bracket.

The pandemic has certainly shifted how people travel, but as international relations stabilise and travel corridors open up with more direct flights returning, Visit Britain predicts a 10% rise in pre-pandemic tourism levels by 2025, a figure that will please the 3.1 million British people working in the tourism sector.

China Chat | The Future of Experiential Retail in China and how UK Brands can benefit from its Innovation

CBBC’s popular China Chat series for consumer brands returns on 25 October in London.

The session will look at China’s evolving retail landscape and what it means for UK consumer brands seeking to engage with Chinese consumers in the post-pandemic era — both in China and in the UK.

Event speakers include Simon Mitchell, Co-Founder of Sybarite; Champa Selim, Deputy Director of Greater China and Southeast Asia at Bicester Village; Antoaneta Becker, Director, Consumer Economy at the China-Britain Business Council; and Celine Tang, Retail & E-commerce Sector Lead at the China-Britain Business Council.

Click here to register

Photo by Fas Khan on Unsplash