On January 8, 2023, China announced the opening of its border, ending three years of zero-covid policy that kept Chinese shoppers from traveling abroad. Before the pandemic, China represented the first tourist market in the world. In 2019, Chinese tourists spent about 254.6 billion U.S. dollars while traveling abroad.
Three years later, the question is no longer whether Chinese tourists will come back. They are back. The real question for cosmetics and luxury brands is: do you know how to reach them in 2026, before they even board the plane?
The Chinese Tourism Market in 2026
Chinese tourists came back faster than most brands expected. According to Trip.com, outbound flight queries increased 254% in late December 2022 alone. By 2024, outbound tourism volumes had recovered to roughly 80% of 2019 levels. In 2025 and into 2026, that recovery is complete for most destination categories. Chinese international travelers have returned as the world’s biggest tourism spenders. In 2019 they took 154.6 million trips abroad and spent nearly $255 billion. We are back at those numbers, with a different kind of traveler leading the way.
Most Chinese travelers still prefer Asian destinations first: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand. European destinations follow, led by France. Chinese people actively plan shopping into their trip, and duty-free stores remain a core stop. That behavior has not changed. What has changed is how they decide what to buy, and from whom, before they leave China.
Top shopping expenses of overseas Chinese consumers
According to the study “Analysis of the tourism potential of the Chinese middle class” published by Atout France, Chinese travelers devote more than 30% of their travel budget to fashion accessories, luxury goods, jewelry, perfumes, and wine. In Western Europe, 85% of Chinese travelers bought clothes, shoes, and accessories. 50% bought perfumes and cosmetics. 40% bought jewelry and watches.
France remains the country where Chinese tourists spend the most. The average basket for Chinese tourists in France was around €1,700, compared to €1,408 for all nationalities combined, according to Global Blue tax-refund data. Paris department stores, particularly those with dedicated Chinese-language staff and WeChat Pay terminals, consistently outperform others.
Overseas Chinese shoppers are luxury and beauty buyers
Buying cosmetics or luxury goods abroad still makes sense for Chinese consumers for two reasons: price gaps between China and source markets (sometimes 20 to 40% cheaper), and the guarantee of product authenticity. I’ve seen brands underestimate this second point. Chinese consumers have been burned by counterfeit products on domestic marketplaces. Buying directly in Paris, Tokyo, or Seoul removes that risk. That’s a real purchase driver, not a marginal one.
First-tier city travelers vs. new explorers
Chinese travelers from first-tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai are much more experienced in traveling abroad, and their travel choices are more frequent. They tend to be less impressed by luxury goods on display because they have seen it before. The more interesting segment in 2026 is travelers from second and third-tier cities, who are traveling internationally for the first or second time. They come with a list. That list was built on Xiaohongshu (XHS) and Douyin before they left home.
How Chinese Travelers Discover Products Before the Trip
This is the part most brands get wrong. They focus on in-store experience and tax-free counters, but ignore the decision that already happened two weeks earlier, on a phone screen in Chengdu or Hangzhou.
In 2026, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) is the dominant pre-trip discovery platform for cosmetics. A traveler planning a Paris trip will search “Paris duty-free skincare 2026” or “which French skincare brands to buy in Paris” and read dozens of user posts with photos, ingredient breakdowns, and price comparisons. If your brand does not appear in those results, you do not exist for that traveler. I’ve seen brands with beautiful Paris flagships lose sales to smaller competitors simply because those competitors had active XHS content strategies. Xiaohongshu marketing is no longer optional for any cosmetics brand targeting Chinese tourists.
Douyin follows a different logic. Short videos showing hauls, skincare routines filmed in hotel rooms in Tokyo, unboxing content from Sephora Paris: these drive impulse decisions and brand awareness at scale. Brands that work with us on Douyin advertising see measurable spikes in product searches during peak travel seasons, Chinese New Year and Golden Week in particular.
AI Search Is Changing How Chinese Consumers Find You
In 2025, both XHS and Douyin integrated AI-powered search features that surface structured answers above organic posts. Baidu’s AI search mode is now the default for a large share of queries. What this means practically: if your brand is not mentioned in content that AI systems index and trust, you lose visibility in that first-page answer layer. Brands that work with us make sure their product claims, ingredient lists, and destination availability appear in Chinese-language content that feeds these AI results. It’s a new layer of SEO that most international brands ignore.
Ingredient Trends Driving Cosmetics Purchases Abroad in 2026
Chinese consumers traveling abroad in 2026 are not just buying brand names. They are buying specific ingredients. The top search terms around cosmetics on XHS in late 2025 and early 2026 include retinol (视黄醇), niacinamide (烟酰胺), tranexamic acid (氨甲环酸), and ceramides (神经酰胺). Travelers specifically look for products with higher concentrations of active ingredients than what is available or approved in China under current NMPA regulations. French pharmacy brands and Japanese clinical skincare lines benefit directly from this trend.
In my experience, brands that communicate ingredient transparency in Chinese win disproportionately. One clear bilingual product card at the counter, one XHS post explaining why your retinol concentration is higher than the domestic equivalent, can close a sale that would otherwise go to a competitor down the street.
What Cosmetics Brands Should Do Right Now
Understanding cosmetics marketing in China is the foundation. But for retail travel specifically, the actions are concrete.
First, build your XHS presence before travel season. Content posted two to three months before Golden Week or Chinese New Year has time to rank and accumulate engagement. Posts from real travelers who visited your store perform better than brand-produced content. Work with micro-KOLs who travel and document their shopping.
Second, make your physical point of sale China-ready. WeChat Pay and Alipay are baseline. Chinese-speaking staff matters more than most brands admit. QR codes linking to your official XHS account or WeChat mini-program at the register keep the relationship alive after the purchase.
Third, think about post-trip repurchase. A Chinese traveler who bought your serum in Paris will want to reorder from home. If you have a Tmall flagship or a cross-border e-commerce setup, that repurchase converts. If you don’t, you hand that customer to a daigou reseller and lose the margin and the relationship. I’ve seen brands build their entire China entry strategy on the post-travel repurchase loop, starting with zero domestic investment.
The Opportunity Is Real but It Requires Preparation
Chinese outbound tourism in 2026 is a genuine growth channel for cosmetics brands with no China presence, and an acceleration lever for those already active in China. The brands winning right now are those that started their Chinese digital presence 12 months ago. The brands that start today will be ready for the next wave.
The travelers are back. The budgets are there. The platforms to reach them are well-established. What most brands still lack is a structured approach to connecting the pre-trip digital touchpoint to the in-store moment to the post-trip repurchase. That’s exactly what we help brands build.
Contact us for a free consultation on your China cosmetics strategy.
