CHINA MARKET REPORT LIALIN, LISA LI, ASTERLAIAND DAVID WU - VISIT FINLAND, CHINA
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China Market Report Visit Finland, China
LiaLin, Lisa Li, AsterLaiand David Wu
May 2018
Semiannual Report – CHINA Winter season 2017-18 and outlook for summer 2018 CONTENTS • Factors affecting the results of the winter season 2017-18 • Outlook for the summer season 2018 • Prospects for the autumn/winter season 2018-19 • Trends and other relevant travel related topics • Facts and figures - Market review data
Factors affecting the results of the winter
season 2017-18
Reasons for the increase in overall outbound travelling from your market?
• Good economic growth. China overall GDP growth +6,9% in 2017, the first time since 2010 that
China's official growth rate has accelerated from the previous year.
• In 2017, Chinese traveling abroad reached 130 million with $115.3 billion expenditures.
• More relaxed visa restrictions.
• More direct flight connections.
• Opening of visa application centres in second/third tire cities.
• Europe is generally a popular destination for Chinese tourists, only after Asia. Ctrip sees +35%
Chinese arrivals to Europe in Q1 2018.
• “Classical” Western European countries recovered from the threat of terror attacks;
• Central and Eastern European destinations benefitting from visa-free policies and being seen as
novel, less well-trodden routes.
• Nationwide passion for winter sports due to host of Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, and as a
result, Chinese President Xi Jinping attempting to convert 300 million Chinese people to winter
sports.
• Free independent travellers (FITs) increasingly dominate the market.
• More Chinese travelers take travel as the opportunity to bring change, expand knowledge and
experience locally.
• Shopping in Europe is the attraction arealdyFactors affecting the results of the winter
season 2017-18
Reasons for the increase in overall outbound travelling from your market?
Ø Hong Kong’s economy expanded by 4.7% year-on-year in real terms in the first quarter of
2018, after growing by 3.8% in 2017
Ø From Hong Kong government, total spending of Hongkongers in the first quarter this year
outside the city rose by 13.6%.
Ø The value of retail sales, in nominal terms, increased by 14.3% year-on-year in January-
March 2018, after the growth of 2.2% for 2017.
Ø Based on levies collected from outbound tours, Hong Kong Travel Industry Council, whose
members are travel agents, reported members’ outbound tour business last year rose by
4.3%. Between Jan – April, the levi income rose 20.5% compared with 2017
Ø Long haul destinations popular in last Winter season include South America, Eastern and
Northern Europe, and overall tour prices rising by 5 to 10%, according to the Travel Industry
Council of Hong Kong
Ø From China Tourism Research Institute, China outbound in 2017 total130.51 million, up
7.0%, spending US$115.3 billion, up 5%.Factors affecting the results of the winter
season 2017-18
Reasons for the increase in travelling to Finland?
Changes in demand
• More in-depth itinerary and authentic experiences;
• Igloos and Aurora watching accommodations as a must;
• Soft adventures such as skiing, driving the snowmobile, ice climbing, ice driving etc. ;
• Winter camp for students.
• More welcome-Chinese facilities and services are provided.
• Finland Winter products got high recognition and acceptance by the marketing done in the previous years.
Both FITs and Tour groups generate at the non peak season as well on Nov, after CNY till April
• OTA and mobile sales are getting more and more popular especially for both Tour group and FIT travellers
• Experienced and smart travellers shift their travel plan to non-peak season eg. Oct – Nov / Mar-Apr
Finland’s image as a travel destination
• Best place for Aurora and good conditioned Aurora watching accommodation options
• Santa Claus’s home town
• Sauna country
• Arctic country
• White, people-less Lapland
• Snow fun
• Romantic and loveFactors affecting the results of the winter
season 2017-18
Reasons for the increase in travelling to Finland?
Changes in distribution
• More tour operators specialized in tailor-making itineraries;
• Various OTAs providing mini-packages, local day trips etc.;
• Specialized sports clubs such as skiing club, ice-hockey club are main distribution channels for sports
tourism.
Changes in accessibility
• Finnair Chongqing reopened in winter 2017-2018.Factors affecting the results of the winter
season 2017-18
Reasons for the increase in travelling to Finland?
Products that have been attractive
• Santa Claus
• Aurora watching
• Family skiing
• Ice Breaker Sampo
• Winter Camp
• Traditional Sauna trip
Regions that have been attractive
• Lapland
• Helsinki
• Student camps
Campaigns, joint promotions results
• Santa Claus Roadshow in December in Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing; Great Shanghai
• FAM trips for winter sports and educational travel;
• Winter Sports promotion during WWSE in September 2017
• Ski destination promotion on Huaxuezoo HGSSE Nov 2017-Jan 2018
• VF Cup Youth Skiing Competition in December 2017 in Wanlong Ski Resort
• Utour campaing, decorate 24 offiline Utour stores in Finnish theme+metro and shopping mall ads
• Bamboo Garden sales promotion event in November 2017
• Ctrip banner in winter theme
• Fliggy aurora 2.0 in 2017Outlook for the summer season 2018
The overall outlook of travelling to Finland for the coming summer?
Increase/decrease and reasons for the increase/decrease
• Increase, but the increase growth rate might be slower than 2017.
• Overall economic situation challenging due to domestic debt, poverty and pollution, trade
war between China and US, etc.. Forecasters have predicted that GDP expansion will slow
to 6.5 percent during 2018, the slowest rate since 1990.
• The market performance of outbound travel so far is not very good for all of the destinations.
• Nordic countries are respectively expensive countries, more sensitive to economic
confidence;
• The traditional Nordic itinerary which covers 4 or even more countries in less than 15 days
are no longer attractive to consumers.
• Air China and China Eastern new routes to Nordic may bring increase to Finland.
New summer products
• Summer camp for students
• Self-driving
• Soft adventures such as cycling, trekking, canoeing, etc.
• Tour for family and kids
New sales channels
• Agencies specialized in educational travel, and their customers(schools, universities)
• Sports clubs
• Tour operators specialized in tailor-made packages
• Lucky Air opened Kunming-Moscow route, more packages incl. Russia and 4 Nordic
countries will be sold in Yunnan market
• Online platform specialized in kids related products
• Tour operators aiming at high end customers and high quality productsOutlook for the summer season 2018
The overall outlook of travelling to Finland for the coming summer?
What are the trends for the summer 2018?
• More rational spending, the per head spending on shopping might fall;
• Chinese travellers turn increasingly towards enjoying high-quality local resources, such as
activities, local food and ingredients, air quality, commodity prices, healthcare and education;
• Slowed down travel path.
• To be more closer to the local people, food, design.. Something presents Finland, to
‘Experience’ Finland
• More FIT travel
Which are the traveller segments?
• Group travelers
• FITs
• Students for educational travel
• Sports enthusiasts
• Technical visitors
• Small private groups with customized itineraries
• Families with children
• Enthusiasts for animals, designOutlook for the summer season 2018
Ad hoc marketing opportunities
(TO cooperation, joint promotions, crossover, events, PR, social media)
• Joint campaign with Utour to promote Lakeland
• Joint campaign with Xi’an Silkroad to promote Finland in North West China market
• FAM trips to Sports destinations, educational travel destinations and Lakeland
• Re-opening of e-Learning 2.0 course in second half 2018
• NNTC campaign
• Open MyStay POIs to MIOJI and Meituan so Chinese tour operators can use them for
itinerary planning
• Joint campaign with Ctrip to promote Lakeland
• Visit Finland China Road Show 2018 in March
• ITB China 2018 in May
• Finnair new route from Nanjing from May 2018, Nordic joint briefing seminar in March
• Nordic workshop witht the topic ’knowledge tourism’, Finland promoted education travel
• Meitu KOL trip to Finland in March
• VF coop with Westminster Travel ( Bees.com - OTA) summer campaign with a KOL
shooting at Lakeland on 14-24Jun, and digital campaign with several summer FIT products
launched
• Jetour summer campaign with 4 products launch to promote Lakeland by May to August
• Guangzhou GZL summer campaign with mono 11days Lakeland products to VIPs group
with ad. at Metro and Buses in GuangzhouProspects for the autumn/winter season 2018-19
The overall outlook of travelling to Finland?
What trends should be considered in product development to increase the demand in
the autumn/winter time?
• USPs respect to other Nordic countries;
• More diversified products;
• Guided Aurora photography trips: If Aurora appears, good quality photos with people inside
can be assured to clients.
• Skiing tour in October/ November
Which present target groups should be considered to increase the demand?
• FITs (including self-driving)
• Small private groups
• Group travellers
• Feminines
Which new target groups should be considered to increase the demand?
• Sports enthusiasts
• Soft adventurers
• Photographers
• Families with childrenTrends and other relevant travel related topics
Trends
Any new travel trends on your market? What’s hot now on your market (BtoC and/or BtoB)
• Professional social media promotion;
• Celebrity and KOLs influence the consumers;
• Digitalization of products in order to make the itinerary planning phase and sales phase
more time-saving.
• Movie/TV show will be great help to increase the desnitation awareness
• Travelers not only book travel by traditional tour operators or OTA platform, but also other
type of online platform or UGC channel
New distribution channels
Your suggestion on how to develop business with them: what needs to be done?
• Use professional PR agency for social media and mass media;
• Faster responding speed while dealing business with Chinese buyers;
• Crossover with other brands from other industries;
• Aligned BtoB and BtoC strategy.
Online channels
Channels where Visit Finland should be present and suggestion of how to be present
• OTAs;
• Online booking platform for young people such as Airbnb;
• Hot Video platforms and live show platforms such as Douyin etc..
• UGC WebsiteTrends and other relevant travel related topics
Competitors’ actions
Which countries have been active, where have you seen their promotion, what was the main message/content
of the communication, competitors’ new products or activities with tour operators/sales channels
Nordic countries:
• Denmark, Norway and Sweden organize Scandinavian Roadshow together every year;
• More flexible ADS visa policy from Norway and Sweden;
• Norway promotes winter sports;
• Sweden promotes educational travel;
• Denmark promotes childlike innocence itineraries;
• STB and VS able to provide pre-made itineraries and mini packages for tour operators’ references;
• Iceland very successful at attracting tourists even without so much marketing promotions, thanks to its
unique landscape and also appearing in many celebritie’s MTV or social media.
• New routes Shanghai-Stockholm by China Eastern Airlines, Beijing-Copenhagen by Air China.
• The most popular young celebrities were in Denmark and Norway, brought enormous market exposure.
• STB did joint campaign with one of the biggest tour operator distributor to develop products.
Other countries:
• For winter sports, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and US are the biggest competitors. Alps countries are
doing great promotions in China
• For educational travel, UK, US, Australia(English native speaking countries) are main competitors.Trends and other relevant travel related topics
Free word
Something else that you would like to say to the Finnish travel trade
• Chinese speaking ski (also other snow activities) coaches can be helpful to develop winter
sports market;
• More patience for new products and new market segments.
• Currently Finland is somehow too strong as winter destination because of aurora and Santa
Claus, we need to create stories to draw the attention from other places in Finland.
• Digitalization and product inventory building are essential for rapidly growing FITs.China (inc. HK) – Market review
dataChinese overnights in Finland 2017
Year 2017: 361 800 (+33%) Winter (Nov-Apr): 146 400 (+66%) Summer (May-Oct): 205 000 (+23%)
24% 48% 58 %
Helsinki received more
than two thirds of the
registered Chinese 42 %
overnights in 2017,
Lapland already every
fifth and it is growing
the most
2% 1% 4% 2%
1%
2% 1
1% % 1%
1%
65% 1%
42%
Source: Visit Finland Statistics Service Rudolf, Statistics FinlandChinese overnights in Finland Lapland
Winter 2017: 57 800 (+113%)
Seasonal overnights in 2017 - 2018
Spring 2017: 11 600 (+82%)
Summer 2017: 6 600 (+42%)
Finland
Autumn 2017: 12 100 (+18%)
Winter 2017 (Dec-Feb): 97 300 (+82%)
Winter 2018: 63 500 (+10%)
Spring (Mar-May): 57 100 (+37%)
Summer (Jun-Aug): 128 000 (+22%)
Autumn (Sep-Nov): 74 000 (+27%) Lakeland
Winter 2018 (Dec-Feb): 120 100 (23%) Winter 2017: 3 200 (+68%)
Spring 2017: 3 900 (+17%)
Coast & Archipelago Summer 2017: 11 300 (+67%)
Autumn 2017: 6 600 (+63%)
Winter 2017: 3 000 (+28%)
Winter 2018: 6 400 (+100%)
Spring 2017: 3 900 (+7%)
Summer 2017: 14 900 (+27%)
Autumn 2017: 4 400 (+3%) Helsinki area
Winter 2018: 4 500 (+53%) Winter 2017: 33 300 (+51%)
Spring 2017: 37 700 (+33%)
Summer 2017: 95 200 (+17%)
Autumn 2017: 50 900 (+28%)
Winter 2018: 45 700 (+37%)
Source: Visit Finland Statistics Service Rudolf, Statistics FinlandYou can also read
