As anyone who has had the opportunity to travel by air this year can attest, 2023 has undoubtedly been the year of airport recovery. According to leading air travel insights company ForwardKeys, in the UK we are on track to see 89% of pre-pandemic traffic volumes by the end of 2023, with more than 269 million passengers forecast to arrive or depart through a British airport. To put this into context, nearly four-times the population of the entire country will be moving through UK airports this year. Globally too, a similar picture is emerging, with air travel forecast to be at 93% of 2019 numbers by the end of 2023, before fully recovering to pre-pandemic traffic levels in 2024.
One of the final pieces of the world travel puzzle is, of course, the return of the Chinese traveller. Since imposing some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions in March 2020, we have been waiting with bated breath for the Chinese government to lift its zero-COVID policy so that international travel can resume in and out of the region. China finally lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers and resumed issuing visas for overseas travel from 8 January 2023 and from 15 March, foreign offices could start processing applications for tourists wishing to visit China.
According to the Chinese Traveller Sentiment Report by Dragon Trail International, “more than 60% of survey respondents said they wanted to travel outside of mainland China in 2023. This group expressed high expectations about the freedom of cross-border travel this year. Survey respondents said they were excited to relax, as well as to experience scenery, food, culture, and shopping overseas.”
However, despite restrictions easing from the start of the year and a strong appetite for leisure travel to overseas destinations, demand for flights out of China has outpaced airline capacity. A lack of available routes and extremely high airfares on the few seats available limited recovery in Q1 and Q2, however as we enter summer, both airline and airport staffing / infrastructure is set to be in place to ensure significant growth across Q3 and beyond.
In the UK, monthly traffic forecasts from ForwardKeys suggest that arrivals from China will ramp up from July 2023 onwards and we will see strong recovery throughout the second half of this year:
Chinese Golden Week in particular (Sunday October 1st to Saturday October 7th 2023) will be a key travel moment for the nation, and travel insights show that destinations in the UK will be high on the agenda once again, following three years of COVID travel restrictions limiting visitor numbers. This key week will see October reach 81% of pre-pandemic levels of Chinese nationals travelling to the UK, so is a vital period for those brands looking to target the affluent traveller from the world’s most populated country.
For us at Evolve OOH, as experts in OOH advertising globally, we regularly use the insights garnered through our partnership with ForwardKeys as a foundation for our international airport planning. However, when this data is fused with our market leading knowledge of airport advertising opportunities – and the role that OOH plays in influencing consumers – true value is found for our clients. So, if you want to hear more about how the team at Evolve OOH can help you/your clients harness the power of airport data to drive better advertising outcomes, please get in touch.