Introducing China Travel Dashboard 3.0: Real-Time Intelligence for a Rebounding Travel Giant

When we first launched the China Travel Dashboard in 2023, we set out to solve a specific problem: how to bring clarity and real-time intelligence to one of the fastest-evolving sectors in global travel — Chinese outbound tourism. What began as a tool for marketers quickly became essential for a broader set of stakeholders: financial planners, airport operators, supply chain strategists, and luxury retail managers, journalists  —  all trying to navigate the shifting tides of post-pandemic recovery.

Today, we’re proud to introduce China Travel Dashboard 3.0 — a transformative leap forward that turns rich datasets into predictive, actionable intelligence through AI integration, expanded financial visibility, a dynamic new visual interface, and for the first time, a built-in AI agent: Maestro AI.

This isn’t just a platform update. It’s the most advanced travel analytics engine ever built for the Chinese market.

A Smarter, More Dynamic Dashboard

At the core of the 3.0 release is intelligence — not just more data, but better answers. By embedding machine learning into each layer of the dashboard, we’ve enabled automated insights that previously required teams of analysts. From interpreting sentiment surveys to flagging unusual spikes in tax-free spending, the dashboard now learns as it updates.

Much of this insight is powered by our flagship Travel Sentiment Survey — a proprietary research initiative conducted quarterly with over 15,000 outbound Chinese travellers. It captures shifting attitudes, destination preferences, planning horizons, booking behaviours, and now, for the first time, travel retail intent and in-market purchase expectations.

This layer of first-party data brings unmatched visibility into why travellers behave the way they do — giving users not only hard numbers, but human signals.

Users can explore evolving traveller behaviour through interactive visualizations that respond to filters in real time. Want to compare Q1 shopping preferences for Gen Z travellers heading to Singapore with Q4 trends in Paris? It’s no longer a manual exercise. The dashboard does it on the fly, giving you more time to act on insights instead of generating them.

Travel, Tracked Across Every Mode

Chinese outbound travel is back, and diversifying fast. While air traffic remains a key signal, 3.0 captures a fuller picture with expanded data on land and sea travel into Hong Kong and Macao, enabling brands to understand not just where people are going, but how they’re getting there.

With real-time feeds from VariFlight, users can see flight capacity and booking levels from Chinese airports to 26 global destinations, track demand by departure city, and analyse seasonal flow patterns across years. Year-over-year comparisons (from 2019 to the current month) allow for nuanced forecasting and recovery tracking — something no static report can provide.

Spending Power Behind the Passport

Where 2.0 introduced transactional data through partnerships with UnionPay and Global Blue, version 3.0 expands both the depth and usability of that data.

On the Tourist Spending side, the dashboard reveals trends in luxury shopping, duty-free behaviour, hotel spend, and even digital engagement. Are Shanghai travellers under 35 spending more on beauty or watches this month in Seoul? You’ll find the answer in just a few clicks — complete with charts that compare those trends over time and across countries.

On the Tax Refund module, data now includes not only transaction volume but also shopper demographics, product categories, and purchase tiers. You can compare shopping clusters like “premium” and “exclusive” across nine countries, filtered by age, gender, and more. It’s a tool built not just for looking back, but for shaping the next campaign, inventory mix, or in-store experience.

Together with the sentiment data, these modules give users both intent and outcome — from pre-trip aspirations to point-of-sale transactions.

Meet Maestro AI: Your Always-On Intelligence Assistant

With 3.0, we’re also introducing Maestro AI, a conversational assistant powered by OpenAI and Gemini that makes the China Travel Dashboard not only insightful, but instantly accessible.

Maestro AI allows users to ask natural-language questions and get precise answers drawn from the full dataset, including travel sentiment, arrivals, spending behaviour, and over 500 proprietary research reports.

Whether you want to know “Which destinations are trending among Gen Z travellers from Tier 2 cities?” or “What is the average duty-free spend per traveller in Europe?” — Maestro AI can surface the relevant insights, charts, or data points on the fly.

For analysts, it’s a shortcut.

For marketers, it’s a strategist.

For executives, it’s a dashboard that talks back.

It’s like having a dedicated analyst who already knows your business and speaks your language.

A Platform for the Rebound World

There’s no doubt that Chinese tourism is regaining scale — over 155 million outbound trips are forecast for 2025, rising to more than 200 million by 2028. But scale alone doesn’t equal opportunity. The real leverage lies in understanding how this cohort travels, what it buys, where it goes, and why it chooses one brand over another.

China Travel Dashboard 3.0 helps decode all of that.

Whether you’re a tourism board planning your seasonal push, a luxury retailer refining your store mix, or an airport brand manager optimizing DOOH placements — this is the tool that connects traveller desire to commercial opportunity.

The future of Chinese travel is not just big — it’s complex, fast-moving, and richly layered. Our mission with 3.0 is to help you see it clearly.

Experience 3.0 Today

Explore your first insight today. Compare Q1 and Q4 trends by traveller age, destination, and luxury spend — live on the platform. Request access now – chinatradingdesk.com/china-travel-dashboard-3-0

Ask Maestro AI your first question, explore the full sentiment dataset, or dive into real-time travel flows. The next generation of Chinese travel intelligence is here — and it’s built for those who don’t just want to keep up, but get ahead. For guided demos, strategic walkthroughs, or press inquiries, contact our team.