China’s consumers want quality in shopping and travelling

Dear reader,

Alibaba Group’s China commerce business Taobao and Tmall Group stated that value-for-money products and livestreaming proved popular among Chinese consumers during the 2023 Double 11 shopping festival. Artificial intelligence-powered tools helped the merchants to run more efficient marketing campaigns and to increase the gross merchandise value (GMV), the number of orders and the number of participating merchants in comparison to 2022. Without giving concrete numbers, the CEO of the Group was satisfied with the success of what Alibaba called “user-first strategy”, which combines competitive pricing with diverse content offerings based on AI-driven technologies. JD.com, Alibabas main rival, similarly stated that it received the highest-ever response from customers this season.

According to preliminary calculations it seems that despite the economic problems in the country the total amount of sales surpassed the result of 2022 by moving from about 156 billion USD in 2022 to about 158 billion USD in 2023.

Meanwhile, the debate about the status of China’s outbound tourism is still raging in international media with many naysayers revelling in writing down China as a major international tourism source market. Seeking the truth in facts, as Deng Xiaoping advised us long ago, the latest numbers from COTRI ANALYTICS show that in the third quarter of 2023 for the first time the number of border crossings was more than 50% of the level of 2019, while the share of Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR fell to below 60% of all trips.

With the current global situation there are not many other reasons to be optimistic, and China’s latest economic figures are no exception. FDI is shrinking, deflation is back and the general mood of anxiety is still prevailing. If that is a pull or a push factor for outbound trips is among the many questions to answer for the global tourism industry.

This edition of COTRI INTELLIGENCE includes as usual the COTRI weekly Editorial, this text “China this week”, the News and the COTRI News in the free content part. For the Topic of the Week, the Deep Dive consulting and the Facts and Views we invite you to consider a Premium or Premium Plus subscription and offer a special welcoming subscription for one month with a 59% discount here: https://cotri-intelligence.ghost.io/welcoming-offer.

In this week’s Topic of the Week we look at the current development of China’s economy and the consequences for consumer behaviour.

The Deep dive consulting text concentrates this week on industrial heritage tourism as an opportunity to attract new market segments.

Facts and Views looks at the step-by-step ascent of China to get back the No. 1 position as the most important global tourism source market.

In the News you will find as always selected news items about different aspects of the Chinese outbound market.

Enjoy this week’s new content and the growing library of previous articles!