Club Med charts plan to woo tourists

Vacation package provider to launch some 8 new resorts in domestic market

Club Med, a global vacation package provider, is planning to make China its largest market in terms of tourist visits in the coming years, a top executive said, as the company bets on the country's tourism market scale, growth potential and innovation capabilities.

Club Med, which has been operating in China for the last 20 years, currently runs 11 resorts across the country. China is its second-largest tourist source.

Among the 17 new resorts scheduled for launch globally in the next three years, the company plans to set up around eight in China, said Henri Giscard d'Estaing, president of Club Med.

"I believe that because of the size and the growth of the China tourism market, as well as the ambition of Club Med and its willingness to grow, China should become our first market in terms of the client number in the coming years with a diversity of products," Giscard d'Estaing said.

The domestic tourism market has recovered strongly, as some 1.84 billion passenger trips were made nationwide between June and August, generating a revenue of 1.21 trillion yuan ($165.3 billion), the People's Daily reported.

During the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, some 826 million passenger trips were made nationwide, a jump of 71.3 percent year-on-year, and domestic tourism revenue more than doubled from a year ago to 753.4 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"Overseas tourism has also recovered to about 70 percent of the pre-COVID-19 level," said Zhao Huanyan, chief knowledge officer at Huamei Consulting Group, which is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Experts said there is a growing demand for high-quality and tailor-made travel products, which require players to come up with more innovative and diversified services.

Club Med has innovated a new product line of urban-themed vacations for urban tourists holding a growing taste for short-distance and flexible travel demand, Giscard d'Estaing said.

For example, its first urban vacation resort worldwide was opened in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Oct 18.

Club Med chose Suzhou's Taicang, also in Jiangsu, as the location for its second urban tourism resort, featuring indoor snow and ski-related activities.

"We want to give an opportunity for the Yangtze River Delta region inhabitants to initiate themselves to skiing or snowboarding close to home," Giscard d'Estaing said.

Propelled by booming consumption and a well-developed high-speed railway network, China is expected to see more than 300 million passenger trips related to snow and ice tourism this year, and the figure to touch 520 million in 2025, generating revenue of up to 720 billion yuan by then, according to the China Tourism Academy.

Giscard d'Estaing said there is still growth potential in ski and snow tourism, and the company is looking for other potential locations in northern China to further tap the trend.

With the success of urban tourism in its first two locations, the company will strive to extend that to more cities not only in China, but also in other countries, he added.