Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/26/2013 -- The China Tourism Report examines the enormous long-term potential of the country's tourism market, particularly in terms of the massive domestic market. With China's middle class expanding rapidly, the domestic market will become of increasing importance to operators over the next decade.

The report examines how best to maximise returns in the Chinese tourism market, navigating the state-led tourism industry to discuss opportunities for joint ventures with Chinese partners.

We also analyse the growth and risk management strategies being employed by the leading players in the Chinese tourism sector as they seek to maximise the tremendous growth opportunities offered by the local market.

Visitor arrivals to China appear to be slowing, in line with ongoing global economic uncertainty. Although full figures have not been released, arrivals to Beijing (the main entrance hub for the country and therefore a proxy for overall arrivals) in the first eight months of 2012 rose by only 0.5% year-onyear (y-o-y) to total 3.36mn foreign tourists. The picture was even gloomier in August, when the capital saw a fall of 6.4% y-o-y to 444,000 visitor arrivals. This is in line with declining arrivals earlier in the year and suggests growth will continue to moderate in the last quarter of 2012. China will continue to focus on attracting visitors from within Asia, with arrivals from South Korea and Japan among the few that rose in August. The eight-day holiday for Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day between 30 September and 7 October is likely to have boosted tourism, as the two festivals have unusually fallen in the same period. Efforts to bolster China's nascent river cruise industry are also suffering from the slowdown. The picturesque Three Gorges region has been targeted for development, as the landscape lends itself to a variety of different cruise options. For this reason, companies such as Yangtze Gold and Century Cruises have invested in new ships designed to tap into the luxury tourism market. However, with tourism arrivals slowing, these companies have put back the launches of their new vessels, since there was a surplus of ships for 2012's tourist numbers. While cruise tourism may pick up in 2013, the slowdown in 2012 looks set to derail investment in an underdeveloped sector of China's tourism industry.

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In line with declining tourist arrivals, China's airlines are also suffering. The major airlines - Air China, China Southern and China Eastern - all reported declines in revenue for H112. The airlines said the weaker currency also undermined profitability, as did a slowdown in passenger numbers. In previous years, airlines such as China Southern experienced double-digit passenger growth, but the slowing passenger numbers indicate that even domestic tourism is beginning to decelarate.

Key Changes

- BMI has introduced new forecasts to reflect the new forecast period through to 2017.

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