Latest news with #ETC
Axios
40 minutes ago
- Axios
Americans' fear of global Trump perception may be hurting US travel to Europe
Europeans have been less interested in visiting America as of late — and for Americans, it appears the feeling's mutual. Why it matters: President Trump's policies have purportedly dinged America's reputation internationally, and it seems that some Americans are feeling self-conscious about that reputation when making their own travel plans. Driving the news: New data from the European Travel Commission (ETC) published Tuesday shows that just 33% of U.S. survey respondents are planning to visit Europe this summer, a drop of 7 percentage points from last year. The ETC said that concerns about high travel costs and plans for domestic holidays were the most cited barriers, but added that "worries about being negatively perceived overseas under Trump's confrontational foreign policy may also be a key factor dampening travel sentiment." By the numbers: Long-haul travel sentiment in the U.S. has improved slightly since the start of 2025, the ETC wrote, but remains weaker compared to summer 2024. An increasing share of Americans (+5% from last year) plan to skip overseas travel between May and August, the ETC found. The commission reported that travel sentiment is strongest among Americans from the Northeast (43% vs. 33% in the total sample), a region that typically leans Democratic and "diverges politically from Trump." "While the US remains crucial for European tourism, the strained international relations and economic turbulence make the travel outlook hard to predict," the ETC said. The intrigue: Chinese tourism to Europe is making up for lost U.S. visitors. Interest in European trips among Chinese travelers surged by 10% since last summer, per the ETC. 72% of respondents from China said they were planning to visit the continent. "The strong sentiment is supported by growing disposable incomes, favourable travel policies, and a consumer shift toward prioritising personal fulfilment and lifestyle experiences such as tourism," the ETC said. That's as both Europe and China are embroiled in trade tensions with the U.S. State of play: The U.S. has become increasingly unappealing to visitors, threatening a massive tourism industry that was worth $1.3 trillion in 2024.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PayMate and DigiAsia enter strategic partnership
B2B payment entity PayMate and Fintech-as-a-Service platform DigiAsia have forged a partnership, aimed at expanding fintech offerings across several regions. The collaboration focuses on embedded finance, digital settlements, and AI infrastructure, targeting India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. It will lead to the creation of a fintech ecosystem that caters to B2B payments, cross-border finance, stablecoin infrastructure, and GPU-powered AI services. DigiAsia will implement PayMate's enterprise card platform across Southeast Asia, while PayMate plans to use DigiAsia's existing foreign exchange licences and payment infrastructure to facilitate B2B transactions across the Asia-Pacific region. The partnership will also introduce a settlement system for B2B transactions that supports an array of digital currencies, including USDT, USDC, BTC, ETC, SOL, and TRX. These digital currencies will be convertible into major fiat currencies such as the US dollar, euro, Singapore dollar, and British pound. In addition, DigiAsia's technological assets, which include 5,120 NVIDIA GPUs, will be employed to establish a GPU-as-a-Service platform, addressing the AI processing needs of sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, and public services. This follows PayMate India's agreement to acquire Indonesian operations of DigiAsia (DigiAsia Bios) for $400m in September 2024. PayMate managing director and founder Ajay Adiseshann said: "This isn't just a strategic tie-up-it's a foundational step towards building a unified fintech and AI backbone across emerging markets." DigiAsia co-CEO Prashant Gokarn stated: "We're excited to deepen our collaboration with PayMate. This partnership accelerates our mission to scale digital financial access across high-growth economies." PayMate services span commercial cards, invoice financing, and cross-border payments, targeting the financial operations of enterprises and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). DigiAsia Corp provides embedded finance APIs for payments, digital banking, and infrastructure compatible with cryptocurrencies. Digiasia Bios is equipped with four licences through its affiliates, enabling it to offer digital payment, P2P lending, remittances, and digital financial services. "PayMate and DigiAsia enter strategic partnership " was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
CNBC
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
U.S. travelers are cutting back on summer Europe trips — but Chinese tourists are making up for it
U.S. tourists seem to be cutting back on summer trips to Europe — but Chinese travelers are more than making up for it, a study found. Data from the European Travel Commission (ETC) published Tuesday showed that just 33% of U.S. survey respondents were planning to visit Europe this summer, some 7% below the levels of last year. The decline appears to largely relate to funding, with 54% of those polled citing high travel costs as a barrier. But political concerns, including those around the perception of the U.S. abroad, also appear to be weighing on plans, the ETC said. "Travel sentiment is strongest among Americans from the Northeast (43% vs. 33% in the total sample), a region that typically leans Democratic and diverges politically from Trump," the organization noted. Popular European tourist destinations usually welcome millions of visitors from the U.S. each year. U.S. tourists in the U.K. in 2023 for example totaled a record 5.1 million, while U.S. visitors were among the top five countries bringing the most cash into the French economy last year. The decline in interest in a European summer isn't limited to U.S. travelers. Around 39% of total respondents to the ETC's survey said they were planning such a holiday in 2025, compared to 41% in 2024. Sentiment around European travel has also pulled back among travelers from Brazil, Canada and Japan. But interest in European summer trips shot up among Chinese travelers, with 72% of survey respondents from the country saying they were planning such a holiday — up 10% from the previous year. "The strong sentiment is supported by growing disposable incomes, favourable travel policies, and a consumer shift toward prioritising personal fulfilment and lifestyle experiences such as tourism," the ETC said. The National Bureau of Statistics of China earlier this year said that the nationwide per capita disposable income grew by more than 5% over the previous year in the first quarter of 2025. Domestically, concerns have nevertheless mounted over the resilience of the Chinese consumer: weak consumer demand drove prices lower recently, while retail sales growth slowed in April. Europe has long been a key destination for Chinese tourists, with many looking to buy luxury goods whilst away. This trend came to a screeching halt during the Covid-19 pandemic, but could be picking back up now. Over half of Chinese travelers now say that shopping is part of their European travel plans, according to the ETC data. Yet, the figures also suggest that travelers might be shifting their spending patterns, with Chinese tourists now especially likelier to tighten the belt. Just 29% of them are expecting to spend more than 200 euros ($229) a day, a 44% drop compared to last year. Instead, the majority of Chinese visitors is now looking to spend between 100 and 200 euros per day.
Business of Fashion
7 hours ago
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Chinese Tourists Ramp Up European Summer Trips as Americans Cut Back
Newly cost-sensitive Americans may be hitting the breaks on their big European vacations this summer, but another group is taking up the slack: Chinese travellers. According to a survey about long-haul trips the European Travel Commission (ETC) is publishing on Jun. 10, which was previewed exclusively with Bloomberg, 72 percent of Chinese respondents say they plan to travel to Europe this summer — up 10 percent from 2024. The figures reflect the highest demand from Chinese travellers since the pandemic. That should elicit a sigh of relief for hoteliers, restaurateurs and other business owners across the continent who depend on big-spending foreign tourists. Before Chinese outbound tourism ground to a halt in 2020, it represented a particularly lucrative sector in Europe, with Chinese travellers coming in second to Americans in spending. Chinese tourists spent $251 billion abroad in 2024, according to UN tourism, surpassing pre-2020 levels. That makes China the largest market in terms of overall tourism spending, even if until recently most of this revenue was spent on trips within Asia. But there's a significant catch in ETC's findings: Chinese tourists do not plan to spend like they used to. That's notable, given the group's previous propensity for luxury shopping. In fact, just 29 percent of respondents say they plan to spend more than €200 per day, a 44 percent drop compared to last summer, and a majority of Chinese travellers — 54 percent — plan to limit their budgets between €100 to €200 a day. Even still, at least 53 percent of Chinese respondents in ETC's report indicate shopping will play at least some role on their trips, and budgets are more generous among business travellers, 36 percent of whom expect to spend more than €200 a day. Overall, Chinese tourists are being tighter with their budgets than most of their global counterparts. The ETC's survey queried 7,100 long-haul travellers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the US about their summer travel intentions—and results show that a total of 11 percent of travellers to Europe will be lowering their spending this summer. The overall ratio of travellers spending only €100 to €200 per day (40 percent) was lower than the Chinese traveler percentages. The reality is that in a climate of economic uncertainty, few travellers are splurging — regardless of their origins. That's echoed in data from the World Travel & Tourism Council showing that tourism growth is expected to slow sharply in 2025. Only a third of the ETC's American respondents are planning trips to Europe this summer, which is 7 percent fewer than in 2024. And yet another three markets surveyed in the ETC report — Brazil, Canada and Japan—are on the decline, to a lesser degree. High travel costs and plans to vacation locally are the primary deterrents. Eduardo Santander, chief executive officer of the ETC, sees reasons for optimism. 'While recovery from China has been more gradual than other long-haul markets, momentum is clearly building,' he says. Building back business with these travellers, he adds, 'remains a top priority for many European destinations.' In other words, it's a relief that Chinese travellers are coming at all. By Lebawit Lily Girma Learn more: Opinion: A Luxury Travel Bubble Is Swelling Hotels and airlines are chasing aspirational vacationers willing to shell out big bucks. What happens when they stop spending?
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Chinese tourists ramp up European summer trips, as Americans cut back
Overall, Chinese tourists are being tighter with their budgets than most of their global counterparts. PHOTO: REUTERS Newly cost-sensitive Americans may be hitting the breaks on their big European vacations this summer, but another group is taking up the slack: Chinese travellers. According to a survey about long-haul trips the European Travel Commission (ETC) is publishing on June 10, which was previewed exclusively with Bloomberg, 72 per cent of Chinese respondents say they plan to travel to Europe this summer – up 10 per cent from 2024. The figures reflect the highest demand from Chinese travellers since the pandemic. That should elicit a sigh of relief for hoteliers, restaurateurs and other business owners across the continent who depend on big-spending foreign tourists. Before Chinese outbound tourism ground to a halt in 2020, it represented a particularly lucrative sector in Europe, with Chinese travellers coming in second to Americans in spending. Chinese tourists spent US$251 billion (S$323 billion) abroad in 2024, according to UN tourism, surpassing pre-2020 levels. That makes China the largest market in terms of overall tourism spending, even if until recently most of this revenue was spent on trips within Asia. But there's a significant catch in ETC's findings: Chinese tourists do not plan to spend like they used to. That is notable, given the group's previous propensity for luxury shopping. In fact, just 29 per cent of respondents say they plan to spend more than €200 ($290) per day, a 44 per cent drop compared to last summer, and a majority of Chinese travelers – 54 per cent – plan to limit their budgets between €100 to €200 a day. Even still, at least 53 per cent of Chinese respondents in ETC's report indicate shopping will play at least some role on their trips, and budgets are more generous among business travellers, 36 per cent of whom expect to spend more than €200 a day. Overall, Chinese tourists are being tighter with their budgets than most of their global counterparts. The ETC's survey queried 7,100 long-haul travellers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and the US about their summer travel intentions – and results show that a total of 11 per cent of travellers to Europe will be lowering their spending this summer. The overall ratio of travellers spending only €100 to €200 per day – 40 per cent – was lower than the Chinese traveller percentages. The reality is that in a climate of economic uncertainty, few travellers are splurging – regardless of their origins. That is echoed in data from the World Travel & Tourism Council showing that tourism growth is expected to slow sharply in 2025. Only a third of the ETC's American respondents are planning trips to Europe this summer, which is 7 per cent fewer than in 2024. And yet another three markets surveyed in the ETC report – Brazil, Canada and Japan – are on the decline, to a lesser degree. High travel costs and plans to vacation locally are the primary deterrents. Mr Eduardo Santander, chief executive officer of the ETC, sees reasons for optimism. 'While recovery from China has been more gradual than other long-haul markets, momentum is clearly building,' he said. Building back business with these travelers, he added, 'remains a top priority for many European destinations.' In other words, it's a relief that Chinese travellers are coming at all. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
