China Tourism Market: Leader of global hotel company talks up China's market potential
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As China continues to roll out policies aimed at boosting domestic demand and attracting international visitors, the hospitality sector is witnessing a shift. Cao Chufeng talks to the CEO of a leading international hotel company who shared her insights on China's growing tourism potential, the impact of recent visa-free policies, and the changing preferences of Chinese consumers. 

CAO CHUFENG, CGTN Reporter "Mr. Maalouf, Thank you so much for accepting the interview. I know this year marks the 50th anniversary since IHG hotels and resorts entered China. 50 years, there must be something particularly attractive about China for your company. What are some of those key aspects?"

ELIE MAALOUF, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts "We're very proud to have completed 50 years in greater China, but we're looking for decades and decades ahead. China is the second largest economy in the world. It's the second largest population in the world. It has a very large domestic travel market, the second or third largest outbound travel market. So there's really no way to be a great hotel global company like we are and not be very strong in China."

CAO CHUFENG, CGTN Reporter "With the Chinese government rolling out more visa free policies, we've seen a clear boost in inbound travel. 'China travel' is a phrase that's quite popular online for 2024. I don't know whether the surge in popularity affected your business in China?"

ELIE MAALOUF, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts "It has affected in both ways. One, there's been a surge of inbound travel from nearby markets, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia. We even hear people from the Middle East coming, not so much from North America, yet a few more Europeans. And then there's also been outbound Chinese travelers, because the visa free is reciprocal.  Again, the same countries, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Middle East."

CAO CHUFENG, CGTN Reporter "The Chinese government is right now focusing on boosting domestic demand. The tourism sector has a relatively strong domestic demand. How would you assess the current state of domestic demand for medium to high level hotels in China?"

ELIE MAALOUF, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts "So we see that domestic travel is pretty stable at the mid to upper levels. Hotels are busy. Occupancy is pretty stable. Now I'd say that room rates are down and we saw that in 2024 impacted a little bit by consumer confidence. But the total volume of travel continues to grow, which is encouraging."

CAO CHUFENG, CGTN Reporter "New consumption trends are emerging quite rapidly. Have you noticed any new consumer behaviors in the tourism or hotel sectors?"

ELIE MAALOUF, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts "So what we're seeing is people preferring experiences over products over goods. And so we see that also in China home sales are down for many reasons. Many hard goods sales are down, but experiences are up, apparel purchases are up, travel is up. So people are choosing experiences over product. And younger people are more interested in traveling and they are prioritizing travel over other spending. But then at other end of the age curve, you have the older people. They have time. They've saved a lot. And they want to spend some of it, and they're traveling too."