A record number of Chinese people are traveling abroad this year during the New Year celebrations, which is also a major travel period within China.
It has therefore been called the largest annual migration of people in the world. Over six million of them go abroad, and the increasing tourism from China is also being felt in Sweden.
A total of nearly three billion trips will be made during the 40-day period known in China as ”chunyun” and coinciding with the Chinese New Year, according to the Chinese transport authority. Around 6.5 million Chinese people will travel abroad during this period, spending an average of 11,900 Swedish kronor each.
The top destinations are Thailand, Japan, Singapore and the USA, but Europe and Sweden have also seen an increase in Chinese tourists. In Sweden, China has gone from 14th to 9th place between 2009 and 2017 when looking at the number of foreign overnight stays, according to figures from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
Already last week it was noticed that there were more Chinese tourist groups visiting Stockholm City Hall for a guided tour, says Anna-Karin Freidh, head of the exhibition unit at Stockholm City Hall.
”"We even had some Chinese school classes and that's not very common. During a couple of weeks around Chinese New Year, there are usually a few extra groups coming."”
However, it is difficult to say exactly how many groups visit the State House because many Chinese travel in groups and bring their own guides, but the number of booked tours in Chinese has become more common.
But according to statistics from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, it is mainly in the summer that the increasing Chinese tourism to Sweden is visible in the statistics. From 2016 to 2017, the number of overnight stays increased by 13.6 percent.
”"Most people visit big cities like Stockholm and Gothenburg, but we also see that more and more people are choosing what we call "soft adventures" where they might go out and experience, for example, a cycling holiday or hike in one of our national parks," says Visit Sweden's CEO Ewa Lagerqvist.
More and more Chinese tourists, who previously preferred arranged, well-planned group trips, are now also traveling on their own.
”It has increased now that we see a growing middle class that can afford to travel and who speak good English,” says Ewa Lagerqvist.
This year, Sweden was named the most interesting destination by Weibo, a popular social network in China.
Source: TT
