Here’s this Issue’s Check List of China Items
● Famous Big Box Store is Background for U.S.-themed Photos: Isolated from the rest of the world for more almost two years, Chinese travel influencers have embraced a new way to entertain themselves and their followers—they’re taking photos in front of American big box store Costco’s Shanghai store, and pretending to be in Los Angeles.
According to online news service Quartz.com, “Several of the posts in front of the Shanghai Costco are captioned ‘pretending to be in Los Angeles,’ or ‘back to the west coast,’ and show the influencers sitting inside shopping carts, holding pizza boxes and cups of Coke, or kneeling in front of the chain’s warehouse building. One of the influencers’ favorite spots is the store’s parking lot, where they can pose in front of the chain’s big logo.” Click here for the complete article.
● From the semi-official Global Times—Putting the Chill on Group Travel: “China’s top authority has pushed to put a pause on group trips in mid- and high-risk areas based on the fact that nearly 80 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases have been related to the travel groups in the recent flareup. Travel agencies and online travel apps are not allowed to operate any inbound and outbound tours, and travel operators in high- or middle-risk cities are required to ‘suspend and notify the public as soon as the statement is issued,’ China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (has) announced. Click here for the complete article.
● Mark Tanner, CEO of China Skinny, a marketing consultancy in Shanghai, had this observation related to the upcoming 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing: “The news was looking grim late last month (September) when Beijing announced that snow sports fans would not be allowed to enter the mainland to watch next February’s Olympics. China doesn’t have quite the same imperative to showcase the country’s magnitude as it did for the last Beijing Olympics in 2008, but they still want a spectacle for the world to see. That’s why the decision not to allow foreign spectators symbolized that it may be a long time before China opened its borders again. Insiders have suggested that it could be 2023 at the earliest before travel would resume to and from China … China remains the last major bastion of the Covid elimination strategy.” Click here for the complete article.
● Jing Daily tells us that elderly content is trending in China:
—Chinese brands are turning their attention to an underserved affluent market—consumers over the age of 60.
—Older consumers typically have greater spending power and more free time to shop than their millennial or Gen-Z counterparts.
—Showing commitment to serving seniors is proving effective both for CSR as well as revenue.
For the complete article, click here.
● China Travel News, in a recent daily briefing, said this: “US tour operators could face long wait for large-scale return of Chinese travelers. While numerous travel companies have enjoyed a surge in bookings in recent weeks, US tour operators face another critical issue. It’s unlikely they will be welcoming the immediate return of large numbers of travelers from China. There are numerous hurdles that must be overcome before many prospective Chinese visitors can arrive in the U.S.”
