The popular video app TikTok is a horror for data protection advocates: many see it as a Chinese propaganda app with which the communist regime in Beijing subtly gets involved in the global battle of systems, fishes out data, exercises control and uses its “soft power”. However, concerns of this kind played no role at the world‘s largest tourism show ITB in Berlin.
There, TikTok presented itself as the new, major force in the global tourism business. In a crowded hall, Stuart Flint, “Vice President Global Business Solutions for Europe” praised the app as the best possible tool for customer acquisition in front of the assembled tourism managers.
Flint, a British native, had nothing of a Chinese propaganda cadre about him, on the contrary: he exuded the charm of a dynamic young entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who had just sent his teenage daughter to Berklee University in Boston. Title of his advertising show: “TikTok takes me there.”
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According to TikTok’s own survey, 77 percent of users were inspired to travel by the video posts. In German-speaking countries, 60 percent of users agreed to book trips based on TikTok recommendations.
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Flint particularly praised how the German world market leader in package holidays, TUI, presents itself on the platform: In short videos, TUI gives tips on how you can cleverly save money on holiday or get to your destination faster when booking tickets. The TUI clips were viewed 4.2 million times and the brand recognition was enormous at almost 14 percent.
Previously, the customer experience when traveling was a linear process that started with booking and ended when they returned home. Today, says Flint, TikTok users are kept in an endless loop when it comes to vacation: Inspiration, search, trip, then reviews and recommendations for other users: Globetrotters always have a reason to be on TikTok, Stuart successfully argued: When people asked who would use TikTok in the future after his presentation, arms went up.
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The app from China, which is so popular with the young target group, may also have helped to significantly increase tourism in their own country. It was completely devastated: In the country of origin of the corona virus, the authorities had taken draconian measures, restricted mobility in the country, banned entry and exit, and quarantined nationals and foreigners for weeks under terrible conditions. All of this seems to have been forgotten: “China’s tourism is coming back at high speed,” said Wang Shutao, ambassador to Germany, in front of the ITB audience.
Wolfgang Georg Arlt, head of the “China Outbound Tourism Research Institute & Meaningful Tourism Center” (COTRI), confirmed the trend: “At the end of 2025, China will be back as the largest tourism source market in the world,” said the institute’s founder on the ITB stage: Travellers from there would soon be omnipresent again in the holiday centers of Europe and the USA.
“More than 100 million people in China are wealthy enough to be able to afford a vacation in Europe, Africa or wherever,” said Arlt: “You can’t ignore the Chinese market.”
In China, visa-free entry is valid for 15 days
Travelers from China are now more careful when spending money and “know exactly what they want,” says Arlt. But because of the large number of travelers, the country is already recording record levels in domestic tourism. “The number of trips abroad is almost 60 percent of the pre-Corona year of 2019.”
The relaxation of entry regulations at the end of last year was crucial for the ramp-up of the tourism business in China. Since December 1st, holidaymakers from Germany have been allowed visa-free entry for 15 days. However, the prerequisite is that the passport is still valid for more than 6 months at the time of crossing the border.
The regulation is initially limited until November 30, 2024. As special administrative zones, Hong Kong and Macau are considered “foreign countries,” warns the Foreign Office: “If entry is from mainland China, this means leaving the People’s Republic of China in terms of the visa . Re-entry into mainland China is therefore only possible if the Chinese visa is issued for two or multiple entries.”
The tour operators are apparently assuming that the 15-day visa will be a success: the Chinese tourist office will be having its own stand at the ITB for the first time. However, the world‘s most populous country is content with a comparatively moderate trade fair appearance on 400 square meters.
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Other countries boast much more: Saudi Arabia, for example, has a trade fair stand that is three times larger at 1200 square meters. Egypt had obelisks, temples and a bazaar built – China largely limited itself to distributing brochures for the individual provinces.
The effort to divert the flow of visitors from the highly sought-after top travel destinations can be seen in the ITB presence in Berlin. Instead of Beijing, the Great Wall or the Terracotta Army, the exhibitors are putting lesser-known destinations in the shop window, such as the ancient villages in Anhui, which are part of the World Heritage Site.
In order to make even remote destinations accessible, said Ambassador Wang, China already offers a network of modern high-speed trains and is also constantly expanding the number of direct foreign flights to the interior of the country.