The European Travel Commission (ETC) and ForwardKeys have jointly released a detailed study of Chinese travel to Europe in the first four months of 2018.

Chinese arrivals in Europe were up 9.3 percent from the equivalent period last year and forward bookings for the period May-August are currently 7.9 percent ahead, marking a strong start to the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year, according to the report.

In the framework of the EU-China Tourism Year, the ETC monitors Chinese traveler trends and evaluates European destination performances. In order to do this, the non-profit organization works with the travel intelligence company ForwardKey which monitors Chinese travel to Europe by analyzing more than 17 million flight booking transactions every day. The research helps Europe’s tourism industry tap into the high potential of the Chinese outbound travel market. 

According to the report, the top destinations for Chinese tourists are Germany, with an increase of 7.9 percent, and France, with an increase of 11.4 percent. In terms of growth, standout destinations were Turkey, up 74.1 percent, Ukraine, up 27.6 percent and Hungary, up 15.2 percent. 

The findings also indicate that tier-one cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou dominated the market, but the traveling demand from tier-two cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou and Shenzhen were high as well.

If you look at the further data for the summer months of June to August, there will be a peak from mid-June to mid-July when the World Cup coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival. The bookings for Russia are 173 percent ahead.

The 2018 China-EU Tourism Year is designed to promote lesser-known destinations and improve the travel experience between China and European Union. More economic cooperation, faster air connectivity and quicker visa application progress have been highly expected by all parties involved.

Chinese outbound travel has been burgeoning in recent years, creating a huge potential market for businesses and tourism. 

Eduardo Santander, the Executive Director of the ETC said: “We firmly believe that monitoring Chinese air travel trends will help the European tourism industry better understand Chinese visitors and enable it to offer them the best experiences”. 

He believed that doing so will reinforce ETC’s and the European Commission’s efforts to secure Europe’s position as the No.1 tourism destination worldwide. 

For the next 12 months, ForwardKeys will continue measuring the data of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year.