COTRI Director Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt Cover Story For China Contact Magazine: “Europe’s ‘Peripheries’ Are Becoming More Interesting”

COTRI Director Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt’s article “Europas ‘Ränder’ werden immer interessanter” (“Europe’s ‘peripheries’ are becoming more interesting”), has been published as the cover piece for the February 2017 edition of China Contact magazine, the “leading German-language business magazine on China”.

In his article, Prof. Arlt explains that, while Chinese outbound travellers are continuing to travel to long-haul destinations in increasing numbers, they are also exercising a degree of caution in selecting destinations they perceive to be “safe”. Accordingly, in light of recent increase in terror-related security incidents having taken place in many European countries since 2015, destinations such as France, Germany and even Switzerland – which has not suffered any high-profile terror attacks – are seeing year-on-year declines in their annual Chinese arrival figures.

Nevertheless, while many of these more well-established tourism hotspots are struggling with the Chinese market, a number of travel destinations on Europe’s geographical and psychological “periphery” have become some of the continent’s top performers in year-on-year Chinese arrival growth statistics. Countries such as Iceland, Latvia and Finland are not only benefitting from their reputation as more “safe” destinations among Chinese outbound tourists, but also from the fact they are considered to be novel destinations among China’s rapidly growing cohort of younger, more independent outbound travellers looking for more authentic experiences.

In light of this current trend, Prof. Arlt discusses the ongoing World Bridge Tourism Project (WBT) and the forthcoming 2018 EU-China Tourism Year, which will not only serve to focus Europe’s China marketing strategy, but also to ensure that the continent’s tourism industry is carrying out suitable product adaptation and employee training programmes in support of its Chinese customers.

Prof. Arlt’s organisation COTRI is working as part of the WBT Project in cooperation with the European Travel Commission (ETC), European Tourism Association (ETOA) and the Shanghai-based Welcome Chinese.

More information regarding the World Bridge Tourism project can be found at: https://www.etoa.org/events/event-item/2017/05/09/default-calendar/world-bridge-tourism-shanghai.

The official website of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year is available at: https://ecty2018.org/

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