Corporate Traveller’s global managing director on China’s reopening

The relaxing of China’s travel restrictions has sent waves through the Aussie travel industry, with agents, airlines and tourism operators receiving a wealth of interest from their clients.

Tom Walley, global managing director of Flight Centre Travel Group’s flagship SME division Corporate Traveller, has reflected on this update from a business travel perspective, highlighting the potential impact this could have on the Aussie tourism industry and what needs to happen to capitalise on this opportunity.

“China is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, accounting for nearly one third (31 per cent) of our trade with the world – the reopening of borders and the relaxing of COVID testing into China is a landmark way to start the year for businesses big and small,” Walley said.

“The travel industry, corporates and tourists alike have been crying out for the world’s second largest economy to reopen to the world, and businesses now have a real opportunity to reset and grow those relationships that have been essentially cut off in-person for the last two years.

“Looking at our internal data, we saw a tremendous spike in flight searches to China on the day it was announced that borders would reopen (27 December 2022) and since then, searches have been consistently more than 40 per cent higher than before Christmas.

“There’s no doubt the demand is there and we’re now starting to see that flow through into actual bookings – it’s early days and there will undoubtedly be some hesitancy around COVID numbers in China – but as we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, people are willing to travel in all circumstances.

“The next stage is for airlines to bring capacity back and we’re expecting this to ramp up in the first quarter with the likes of Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern all returning to our shores. This will likely put downward pressure on airfares to China, and beyond, later in the year,” Walley concluded.