The COTRI China Star Consumption Index introduced!

Following the “charm offensive” during the visit of Xi Jinping to the USA, the foreign ministry of China announced a trial phase of allowing the citizens of six countries, five of them European, to visit China under a visa waiver program. The only non-European country on the list is Malaysia. The announcement took most observers by surprise, as in the past China always insisted on at least a reciprocal agreement and in many cases did not even agree to offer visa-free entries when other countries introduced visa-free travel for Chinese citizens, as for example Morocco, Serbia and Albania did.

At the same time the economic worries in China are further fuelled by the news about One of China’s biggest financial conglomerates with links to the country’s ailing property market warning investors that it is “severely insolvent”. Zhongzhi Enterprise Group (ZEG), one of China’s largest private conglomerates with operations in financial services, mining and electric vehicles and an important part of China’s shadow banking sector, announced that its total assets covered not even half of its obligations of about 65 billion USD. ZEG’s assets are largely property-related, however, ZEG blamed “ineffective internal management” following the death of its founder in 2021 as part of the reasons for the current situation instead of pointing to the slow-motion crash of China’s real estate sector.

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 report about the QTM Qatar Travel Mart 2023 International Tourism Conference with regard to the insights relating to the Chinese tourism market.

The Deep dive consulting text concentrates this week on visa policies for China’s inbound and outbound travel.

Facts and Views introduces a brand new index developed by COTRI to measure the consumption patterns of China’s gourmets, both locals and expats.

The COTRI weekly Editorial also celebrates the introduction of the new consumption index.

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!