The two-day China Visitors Summit successfully concluded in Dubai on September 6 with 103 buyers and 82 suppliers from 14 countries in attendance.

In his opening speech on September 5, Alexander Glos, CEO, China Visitors Summit, said: “Today is the start of a whole new era in global Chinese travel. Chinese travellers have really changed and evolved since the Covid outbreak and Chinese travellers now are discovering new destinations all over the world. Last year, which was an alleviated, short year for Chinese travel, we had 89 million global Chinese travellers travelling around the world, spending $198 billion.

“According to hotels.com, Chinese travellers are the biggest spenders for hotel reservations around the world,” he said.

“This is still just the beginning. The future is really bright and wonderful for Chinese travel, and all of us are going to have lots of opportunities to prosper from it in the near future,” he added.

Shahab Shayan, Regional Director, Asia Pacific and Turkey at Dubai Economy and Tourism (DET), said: “Dubai is China-ready. Dubai is ready to welcome back China as it has never before.

“We have done an amazing China Ready programme starting with visa free travel and being able to provide Chinese travellers with Alipay and Wechat pay, meaning that a Chinese tourist can just come to Dubai with their phone and start paying for everyday things. Payments for even for the taxis and the RTA buses can be now done with just the phone.”

Shayan continued: “In the last six months, Dubai has actually welcomed over 9 million overnight visitors, which is a tremendous growth for what we received at the same time, pre-pandemic. Even though we had a late start with China, we saw China recovered almost 84 per cent in the first six months of this year versus 2019.”

Since its inception in 2008, the China Visitors Summit (CVS) has been the largest and premier meeting point for Chinese travel industry buyers and global travel suppliers seeking to expand their business with China.

The event drew around 120 Chinese travel industry buyers, including travel agencies, tour operators, MICE managers, wholesalers, luxury agencies, corporate travel planners, and specialty agencies, as well as OTAs and more. These buyers met with regional and national travel suppliers, including hotels, attractions, museums, airlines, car rental companies, DMCs, and more.

China Visitors Summit will travel to Riyadh this week from September 9 to 10, 2024, and take place at the Riyadh Airport Marriott Hotel. – TradeArabia News Service