Vietnam and Cambodia 'next on the Chinese tourist trail'

Vietnam and Cambodia could be set to benefit from the huge rise in outbound tourism from China, an expert has said.

Hang Zhao, business development manager and consultant at aviation consultancy ASM Global, said data indicates that these destinations are likely to see rapid growth in the near future.

Although Thailand will remain as the largest outbound market from China, since 2010 seats between China and Vietnam have grown from 1.6 million to 5.9 million.

In Cambodia the market has grown from 0.75 million to 4 million.

Zhao outlined China’s incredible growth; in 2018 the total passenger throughput by all civil airports in China was 1.265 billion, a 10.2 percent increase from 2017.

Some 3,615 aircraft will be operated by Chinese carriers by the end of 2018, 426 higher than 2016, while 13 airlines have 408 wide-bodies in total, 236 of which these are A330 (57.8 percent).

However challenges remain, including insufficient use of traffic rights. Until 2017, only 58 country destination has direct service from China by Chinese Carriers out of total 122 countries with air traffic relationships with China.

And Zhao also said the market is currently heavily imbalanced, lacking African and Latin American routes.

Wesley Charnock

Wesley Charnock is Content Marketing Director for Aviation Week Network.