Chinese tourism is a major global force and this article from the ABC takes a look at the phenomena including the dreaded commission shopping tours.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/how-chinese-tourists-are-reshaping-tourism-around-the-world/10557512
Reading list - hopefully we will all be too busy with business over the Christmas/New Year period, but if you do expect time to read a book, here is Bill gates top 5 book picks.
https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/bill-gates-says-these-are-5-best-books-of-2018-and-you-should-give-them-as-gifts.html
Major tech advances for retail in 2019 - some of these might seem irrelevant to small market businesses, but some of them are interesting - take the predictions for Instagram growth which we all have access to.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/11/28/ten-tech-based-predictions-for-the-retail-industry-in-2019/#3ac304a7744c
The scientific case for eating bread - as a food staple this will be relevant to one of the world's great food markets.
https://qz.com/quartzy/1487485/the-scientific-case-for-eating-bread/