China's Golden Week holiday is over

The Golden Week holiday in China is over and it has provided many answers to the question how Chinese consumers will spend their time and their money especially on travel and tourism at home and abroad.

Of course, you will find the COTRI weekly editorial in the free section of the new content of this edition, plus, as described below, a lot more content from this earlier editions.

As every week, you can enjoy this “China this week” text, the News and the COTRI News as well as the COTRI weekly Editorial free of charge, 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.

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Unfortunately, the world seems to get crazier by the day. The level of damage from Climate Change has provoked even Pope Francis to speak up in clear words against greenwashing and complacency, reminding us that according to the Bible, God reminded Moses on Mount Sinai that “with me you are but aliens and tenants” of the earth. In that very region of the world another conflict brings death and destruction to thousands of civilians, at a time when the USA government is reeling from the effects of an act of self-castration. In Europe, election results in different countries all show increasing support for xenophobic political parties offering the simple solutions to the wrong problems.

China is casted for the role of scapegoat in many of these discussions. In the decade under the leadership of Chairman Xi Jinping, the image of China in the world has shifted dramatically from being an example of success as a result of diligence and intelligence towards an image of being a dangerous bully. A recent study of the Pew Research Center in 24 countries reported the worst-ever results in 2023 for the majority of the countries (see graph). Another study of 2022 by Joshua Kurlantzick even spoke of the “collapse of China’s Soft Power”.

In China itself, the first Golden Week without any CoViD-related restrictions brought a wave of spending and travelling bigger than seen in the last three years, but not as big as predicted and certainly not as big as the official Chinese media has tried to portray the development.

In this week’s edition of COTRI INTELLIGENCE, the Topic of the week accordingly deals with the lessons to be learned from a realistic assessment of the Golden Week, which this year came in a XXL edition as it could be combined with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Deep dive consulting text looks at one of the oldest cultural features of China, which is experiencing a revival in post-pandemic China: Gambling. Betting and games of luck have been an important part of life for Chinese of all classes, genders and regions throughout history and has survived all attempts to get rid of such an anti-socialist vice. Visiting casinos has been a major activity for many Chinese visiting Macau SAR as well as other destinations from Singapore to Sihanoukville or the Philippines. In the text the future importance of gaming and gambling for outbound tourism is analysed.

Facts and Views provides another deep look into Chinese culture: “Pengyou” (friend) is one of the first words learned when studying Standard Chinese language (Putonghua / Mandarin), used for practically everybody you meet outside of clearly defined relations. “Zhengyou” however means a friend or an adviser who dares give voice to unpleasant truths, offering discomforting opinions and counsels caution. How important the differentiation is and how a lack of Zhengyous seem to influence modern China are aspects which provide another aspect of how to communicate with Chinese business partners or customers.

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

In COTRI News an update is provided for the QTM Qatar Travel Mart 2023.

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