ChinaPro Marketing Partners

06/13/2025

According to Dept. of Commerce's most recent statistics, China ranked #5 as the top overseas travel market for the US in the first quarter. Preliminary data also shows that China slipped a space and ranked #6 in the first 5 months of 2025, after being surpassed by Germany at 636,616 visitors.

As the US tourism industry gather next week at IPW in Chicago, I hope these numbers will help demonstrate that even with lots of challenges, China market is still a force to be reckoned with. My company, ChinaPro Marketing Partners recently resumed a contract with a client that we assisted prior to the pandemic. Announcement to follow.

Talk to me if you are interested in the China market. I look forward to catching up with many colleagues, old and new, at IPW.

Source: https://lnkd.in/gfS9tCr9

hashtag hashtag hashtag Z.J. Tong

07/17/2024

Meeting with industry colleague at US Consulate in Shanghai hosted by US Commercial Services. The work group meets quarterly to discuss Chinese inbound tourist market. Here are some notes:

1. Brand USA is partnering with US Commercial Services on various collective initiatives promoting US as a destinations to the Chinese visitors.

2. Brand USA is planning a bigger presence at ITB China next May.

3. Brand USA is doing RFP to secure a rep agency in China. More China strategies will be available after this September when the recipient of the RFP has been granted.

4. Visa issues have been brought up multiple times. An example is a student group of 100 people at the age of 10-14 was denied 46% of their visas.

5. More tour operators are leaning toward planning small groups or FIT trips so that they could minimize the risk of not receiving visas for the larger groups.

6. Delta and United Airlines both continue to build their direct flights to China. United will resume flight from Shanghai to LA in August with 4 round trips a week, which will increase to daily flights after Oct. 27. United is also offering mini group rates to support the smaller group travel needs.

7. Hertz has resumed their mileage exchange program with 3 major airlines in China. They are also accepting UnionPay credit cards in the US now.

06/19/2024

What's next for the China market? Visit Calfornia's CEO Caroline Betata's message today says it all: "The year ahead will see a concerted effort to restore Chinese travel. Although visitation from China recovered to just 48% of its 2019 peak last year, it was our No. 1 overseas market even at that level. While geopolitical concerns like the Russia-Ukraine war have constrained nonstop flights from China to the U.S., the Chinese pent-up demand for travel to California from China is so strong that Chinese travelers are using alternate routes to get here. They fly through international hubs to work their way to California. The chart below demonstrates how the number of Chinese travelers arriving exceeds the number of nonstop seats available to travelers flying directly from China." She also detailed the millions of dollars California is investing in Chinese market. I'll include a link to her message in comments.

I was speaking to a CA-based receptive operator earlier this year. She mentioned that her Japanese clients were telling her that 70% of Japan's flight capacity to the US are taken by the Chinese travelers to the US. And most recently, I hosted a group of top doctors from China who had to fly through Dubai to attend an industry conference in Chicago. Chinese travelers are still traveling to the US even though the number of direct flights are just around 30% of the 2019 level.

05/29/2024

On May 23, Delta Airlines increased their Shanghai-Detroit flight DL388 to daily from 3 times a week, joining another daily direct flights from Shanghai to Seattle.

The Shanghai-Detroit route will feature Delta's A350-900 aircraft and the Shanghai-Seattle route will feature Delta's A30-900neo aircraft.

The increased direct flight comes right in time as we enter the busy season of summer leisure and student travel. These direct flights connect more than 90 North America destinations with China. Travel Michigan Visit Detroit

Source: ttgbtmice.com

05/23/2024

My team member attended College Fair organized by Education USA and US Commercial Services this past week in Shanghai. We attended as a travel partner and promoted destinations such as Berkeley, CA and our shopping center client The BLOC in LA, Mall of America in Minnesota and Fashion Island in Orange County.

Chinese student market remains strong during the pandemic with close to 300K studying in the US in 2023, making it the largest international student body. Many of these students are from affluent families that are spending $60-$100K a year for their children's education in the US. And many of these family members are guaranteed visitors to the US to see their children or to attend graduation, etc.

In addition to destination, attraction and shopping center clients, we are also actively looking for college and university clients so that we could help them reach to the Chinese market. Personally, I have visited and live-streamed at over 50 universities in the US and Canada and have accumulated over 170K followers, many of whom are parents of Chinese students. Invite me to your city, to your attraction or to your school. I and my team can help you open this market for you. ChinaPro Marketing Partners

05/23/2024

According to NYC & Company's President and CEO Fred Dixon, NYC will welcome 833K visitors from China this year, making it the 3rd largest international source country for the city. But it will take until 2026 for the number to reach back to pre-pandemic level, which was 1.1 million in 2019 - Summary/translation from TTG China's article in Chinese.

ChinaPro Marketing Partners

04/24/2024

I created this charts to demonstrate the top overseas market for US tourism. China is slowly growing back to be ranked #8 with 1.08 million arrivals in 2023. (source: https://www.trade.gov/i-94-arrivals-program)

03/26/2024

ChinaPro Marketing Series #7: Destination marketing through partnership with Chinese celebrities.

In the fall 2018, on behalf of client Great Lakes USA, we hosted famous Chinese singer/actor Isabell Huang and her filming crew of 10 people in Chicago for her new single "Hello". Her video reached over 142K views on Youtube and millions of impressions in China. As a result, we also received a feature story of Great Lakes destinations on World Traveller Magazine and a cover of the magazine with Isabell at another client of ours, Art Institute of Chicago. The crew was lucky to have captured the beautiful fall in Chicago. Many thanks to Illinois Office of Tourism and Choose Chicago for their generous support! Take a look!

#音樂散仙 #迷幻慵懶 #浴室靈魂歌后【數位平台】KKBOX：https://reurl.cc/NK6e6MyMusic：https://reurl.cc/6nlzMfriDay音樂：https://reurl.cc/9mXKOSpotify: https://reurl.cc/peykaiTunes: http...

03/22/2024

Just attended Brand USA Board of Director meeting on Zoom, which mentioned that during this year's IPW, there will be a very strong Asian participation including 114% growth of Chinese buyers. Brand USA is resuming a media campaign in China between May and July (anybody with more details on this?).

All eyes are on the upcoming US-China Tourism Leadership Summit taking place in late May. This is the deliverable from Secretary Raimondo's ice-breaking visit to China last August. To many DMOs and attractions, this is very likely the kick-off signal to restart their China initiatives.

My company, ChinaPro Marketing Partners, is a Chicago/Shanghai based travel marketing agency with extensive knowledge and connection to Chinese tourist market. Talk to us about your China strategies, trade and media outreach, or just have us translate your profile sheet. We are here to help you succeed in this "very lucrative growth market".

03/20/2024

The most recent B1-B2 non-immigrant including tourist visa appointment wait times in China are:

Shanghai - 119 days
Beijing - 38 days
Shenyang - 30 days
Guangzhou - 148
Wuhan - appointment time yet to be release, but expected after 3/28.

More info on visa appointment wait time can be searched on this website.

Advance travel planning and early visa application are important. If you plan to apply for a nonimmigrant visa to come to the United States as a temporary visitor, please review the current wait time for an interview using the tool on the page.

03/19/2024

Good news! Just received an announcement that US Consulate in Wuhan will transition to a new facility and have an opening ceremony on 3/28. It is believed that this consulate branch will restart processing non-immigrant visa after the move.

In 2023, roughly 1 million Chinese travelers visited the US, which is about 1/3 of the 2019 level. US Commercial Services is projecting that the number will go up to more than 70% this year. Chinese travelers are already the largest overseas spender at some states such as California.

03/13/2024

Visit California Forum Day 2 featured updates from VCA's world office directors. Here's the summary from Michale Merner, the managing director of the China office:

1. The Chinese travelers' #1 concern right now is "safety". This is reflected by older travelers tend to choose short-haul travel instead of long flights to the US. We are seeing more Millennials and Gen Z travelers to the US (A later presenter Mei Zhang mentioned that safety issues among Chinese are related to: crime, drug use, homelessness and Asian hate).

2. Shift to FIT. 70% of travelers are FIT now. And many also choose to do Fly Drive. Rental car sales in China went up 300% in China. This trend means Chinese are going to destinations that are beyond gateways and off the beaten path, which is a good news to small and lesser known destinations.

3. Luxury Travel - For 3 years, Chinese are not traveling to world's luxury destinations. The savings will lead to pent-up demand to luxury travel. To Chinese, luxury travel means personalized experiences.

4. Shift to outdoors - instead of traditional attractions, more Chinese are traveling to outdoor destinations. It's estimated that $420 billion will be spent on outdoor activities next year. Due to the Winter Olympics Beijing in 2022, there is also a strong and growing interest in snow tourism.

5. Chinese will be the biggest spender in California in 2024 fiscal year with $2.2 billion. The number will go up to $2.7 billion in 2025. And Chinese travelers will be back to #1 overseas arrivals for California in 2026.

Buzzword for the new Chinese tourist market:
Young, bilingual, Gen-Z, Tech savvy, beyond Gateways, Outdoors, snow tourism