With all the gloom about China’s macroeconomic situation this summer, the health of the Chinese retail and catering sector has been overlooked, along with the potential there for the seafood industry. China’s retail and catering spending combined grew by 12 percent year on year in the first half of 2015 to total USD 172 billion (EUR 151.6 billion), up 11 percent year on year. That’s hardly anemic.
Chinese money has also been boosting tills overseas. During the past two weeks, following the annual China outbound travel peak, photos have poured in from around the world to my Wechat (a Chinese micro-blogging app) account, posted by friends on tour. Chinese holidaymakers took to the skies for the annual “Golden Week” holiday as the break to celebrate National Day in the early days of October has become known. Incredibly, border crossings by nationals of China have gone from 10 million to 116 million between 2000 and 2014.
The key beneficiaries of the largesse are regional neighbors. Chinese tourists spent nearly USD 1 billion (EUR 881.5 million) in Japan in the first week of October: the old imperial foe is lacerated at home in Chinese propaganda. But a weaker yen has drawn droves of Chinese tourists who also appreciate the quality and relative safety of Japanese food and consumer products.
Data shows that outbound Chinese tourists grew by 36.6 percent over last year during the first four days of the National Day holiday. The top destination was Japan, followed by Thailand and South Korea, with Hong Kong and Macao taking fourth and fifth place, according to Ctrip.com, China’s leading online travel agency.
Shopping and eating are the top preoccupations of Chinese tourists abroad –judging by the photos they post on social networks like WeChat – and China’s increased eagerness for travel presents great opportunities for vendors of seafood. The waves of Chinese visitors flying into Tokyo are flocking to respected local sushi restaurants such as Tsugu Sushimasa and Sushi Saito.
The trends are clear and will continue, including a huge increase in the number of direct flights connecting China’s domestic cities to international destinations. In 2006, there were 10 non-stop flights between the United States and China, amounting to two million passenger trips per year. In 2014, the number of non-stop routes jumped to 35, with an additional three non-stop flights already announced for 2015.
While in number terms leading destinations are Southeast Asia (low cost and proximity are factors for the millions of first-time Chinese travelers) the fastest growth in China’s outbound travel is going to be headed toward Western Europe and the United States. While the United States received 1.1 million Chinese visitors in 2011 it is set to receive 3.5 million in 2023 and in spending terms the growth looks even more striking. Chinese visitors will increase their spending in Southeast Asia from USD 16 billion (EUR 14.1 billion) in 2013 to USD 44 billion (EUR 38.8 billion) in 2023 but in the same period spending in North America will grow from USD 9 billion (EUR 7.9 billion) to USD 38 billion (EUR 33.5 billion), according to research compiled by the InterContinental Hotel group with Oxford Economics.
As they get wealthier and more ambitious Chinese tourists seek out western destinations. But western destinations don’t appear to be prepared. According to consultancy Attract China only 4 percent of the U.S. hoteliers who are interested in attracting Chinese tourists know about UnionPay, the card payment processing system used by Chinese banks.
One of the reasons Chinese tourists don’t spend in local eateries when travelling in the west is because they rarely understand it. “What are the local specialties?” I am constantly asked by Chinese friends preparing for a trip abroad. Crucially, food and beverage outlets need to make it easy for Chinese tourists. Given the trends in visitor numbers there has to be Mandarin-language signage and leaflets in retail and dining outlets that want to benefit from tourists’ spending. It’s not that Chinese tourists are not willing to spend on food and drink. For the wealthier ones it’s all about “lifestyle affirmation” – they spend to show they can afford to spend, indulging in western hotels and restaurants.
Vendors of seafood products and regions where seafood is a significant industry need to be creative: for instance a seafood tour of the Australian or American east coast. Likewise, an oyster and wine tour of Normandy. Norway could certainly offer a nature-and-seafood tour given that salmon more than any other species has a “clean” and “fresh” image in China.
China is not Japan: this is a trend that is going to run for some decades as new waves of Chinese gradually get the money and the desire to travel and sample the world. Even as spending by outbound Japanese tourists began to level off in 2012 China became the top source of outbound tourist spending: USD 100 billion (EUR 88.2 billion) in 2012, ahead of second-place United States on USD 84 billion (EUR 74.1 billion) according to calculations by the U.N. World Tourism Organization.
It’s not too difficult to market products to Chinese travelers who like to categorize or even pigeonhole categories and diets when on tour. This offers savvy companies a chance to create and market seafood as being unique to certain locations. But this requires marketing efforts.
Chinese tourists tend to travel in huge numbers over concentrated periods of time, thus it’s easier to tailor marketing to intensive periods – in particular the first week of October. Much of the marketing can be done at low cost. Digital marketing is key. For instance, a presence on the various social media outlets such as Wechat and Weibo on which Chinese document and research their travels.
Given the size of the Chinese diaspora it’s not hard to find Chinese language resources near you. A particular resource is China’s vast overseas population of students: hiring in some interns to draft some marketing materials. But Mandarin-language brochures in tourism offices and a link-up with Chinese travel agencies are also doable.
It’s also a good idea to run promotions around Chinese festivals: for example a seafood product or dish for Chinese New Year or the Mid-Autumn festival which falls near to the Chinese National Day in October.
The use of fish as a symbol of prosperity in Chinese New Year greetings is enough proof of the prestige of seafood in Chinese culture. The vast scale of China’s outbound tourist exodus offers opportunity to anyone who’s willing to market their seafood restaurant to the world’s biggest tourism market of the future.
