UKinbound welcomes back Chinese visitors through new workshops

UK-focused travel trade association UKinbound has launched a new series of workshops with specialist Chinese tourism consultancy, Guanxi, to ensure that tourism businesses throughout the UK are ready to receive visitors from China who have not been able to travel for over three years. The first training course will take place on 3 July hosted at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire, in partnership with destination management organisation Shakespeare’s England. Joss Croft OBE, CEO of UKinbound says: “Before the pandemic, China was the UK’s second most valuable international market for expenditure – spending £1.7b (USD $2.1b) in 2019. Visitors from China also like to spend around 65% of their nights outside of London when they are in the UK, so economic benefits from these travellers are felt in all our nations and regions.” Croft continues, “We know that the pent-up demand for international travel and appetite for visiting the UK is very high right now in China, but the UK travel trade needs to understand how best to welcome and look after these visitors whose outlook will have changed immeasurably since 2019.” In 2019, the UK welcomed 40.8 million international visitors, who contributed £28.4b to the UK economy, according to Visit Britain. Chinese visitors accounted for 883,000 of those visitors, contributing £1.7b to the economy. Helena Beard, managing director of Guanxi, comments: “Our interactive workshops will help tourism and hospitality businesses understand the travel motivations, cultural differences and post-pandemic travel trends of Chinese tourists.” “(They will provide) practical tips on how to tailor experiences and other products, communicate with customers, and offer the best kind of service to this valuable new wave of Chinese visitors.”