The fifth annual Chinese International Travel Monitor released by Hotels.com, has revealed 92 percent of Chinese travellers plan to increase or maintain spending and one-third of them plan to spend more on travel in the coming year – despite the slowing economy.
The survey’s findings are good news for destinations including the UK and the UAE, which have seen strong growth in Chinese tourism arrivals in the past three years.
The Ipsos survey involved 3,000 Chinese travellers. To complement this data with opinions of hoteliers, Hotels.com carried out a global survey of 5,800 accommodation partners.
China continues to be the top global spender in terms of tourism expenditure, and the potential for growth with the market is enormous with only 5 percent of the nearly 1.4 billion Chinese citizens currently holding passports.
Some 120 million Chinese travelled overseas in 2015, up from 117 million in 2014, the year when the milestone of 100 million was first passed. This year’s report shows two-thirds of outbound Chinese travellers consider travel to be an essential part of life – and are prepared to spend nearly a quarter of their income on travel, providing operators with enormous growth opportunity.
The report found behaviour of Chinese travellers has changed greatly since the Chinese International Travel Monitor was first published five years ago. According to the hotelier survey, the top changes to Chinese travellers were improved English language skills, travellers increasingly looking for value for money, having higher expectations, having more demanding requirements and spending less.
Abhiram Chowdhry, vice president and managing director Asia Pacific for the Hotels.com brand encouraged hoteliers to avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach to attracting Chinese Travelers.
“Perceptions of Chinese travellers wanting only Chinese breakfasts and Mandarin translations are out dated. Our research shows that the industry needs to move decisively to develop new products and marketing strategies for the far more sophisticated Chinese traveller of today”.
To help the industry cope with these more independent and diverse travellers, Chinese International Travel Monitor 2016 reveals five travel personas that Chinese travellers fall in to.
- Detailed explorers (25%): Born in the 60s and 70s, they are innovative and optimistic, like to learn and explore and to plan their trips down to the last detail.
- Cautious connectors (25%): Also born in the 60s and 70s. They come from lower-tier cities and responsible family people and travel to bond with loved ones. They prefer safe, family-friendly hotels.
- Experience seekers (17%): Tend to be born in the 80s and 90s and be from top-tier cities. They like stylish hotels and professional advice on local cultural activities. They travel to enrich their experience, being independent and ambitious.
- Indulgers (12%): Most likely born in the 80s, they travel to indulge themselves and to demonstrate their power. They tend to stay at higher-star hotels and go on adventurous local tours.
- Basic pleasure seekers (21%): Millennials born in the 90s and unlike other groups, more of them are women than men. They are aesthetically minded and travel for non-material enjoyment, seeking value-for-money accommodation.
Chinese millennials spent 27 percent of their income on travel, according to survey data – the highest proportion of all Chinese travellers. The hoteliers’ survey shows that number of Chinese millennial guests (aged under 35) increased 12 percent, slightly higher than the median increase of total Chinese guests (11 per cent).
When it comes to what Chinese travellers want from a hotel, free wi-fi was again top of the list. Currently, 45 percent of hotels surveyed already provide free wi-fi, with a further 46 percent planning to introduce it. Fifteen percent of hoteliers are already providing translated tourism/travel guides, another 16 percent were planning to provide them. Whilst only 8 percent currently provide a kettle, 34 percent planned to introduce this; and with slippers a rarity (2 percent), 25 percent were planning to introduce them.
Also on the technology front, social media as a source of travel information was up six percent on the previous year. When it came to booking, only 10 percent used conventional travel agencies, while 74 percent used online travel agencies. Over 62 percent of bookings were made via mobile according to those surveyed, with booking via mobile up 10 percent on the previous year’s survey.
The research combines survey data from more than 3,000 Chinese international travellers and 5,800 Hotels.com accommodation partners globally with Hotels.com’s own data and other third-party research.
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