Parent-child tourism takes off in big way

Chinese parents are booking more domestic and outbound research as well as study tours this summer compared to the same period last year, and the market is set to embrace a golden period of growth, industry players said.

However, parents have become more cautious while choosing research and educational travel products, and are paying more attention to quality, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

The United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore are the most popular destinations for research and study tours. Such trips mainly include taking international classes abroad, and in-depth tours of museums and famous universities.

In addition to time-tested experiences of visiting renowned universities in Europe and the US, some niche destinations in northern Europe that focus on natural landscape sightseeing, such as Finland and Norway, have also become popular for research and learning trips this summer, Qunar found.

More parents are choosing routes that emphasize humanities, history, nature, and aesthetic education, as well as projects that are highly experiential and interactive.

People born in the 1980s and 1990s — young parents now — are the main consumer groups in the parent-child travel market, and they are more willing to pay for high-quality parent-child travel experiences, industry observers said.

"For example, participating in a turtle conservation project in Bali, Indonesia, and an elephant conservation project in Thailand, have seen significant increases in bookings this year. Since children can do something by themselves, this makes it more meaningful," said Yan Lanru, director of research and study tours at Qunar.

"For domestic study trips, several travel agencies have launched cultural tours equipped with experienced research mentors and experts in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. They will help children deeply experience and understand the culture and historical heritage of the ancient capital," Yan said.

The per capita cost of domestic research tour products has declined by 10 percent this summer compared with the pre-pandemic level of 2019, but the per capita cost of such tours overseas has increased by about 40 percent over 2019, data from Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency, showed.

Summer vacation is the peak season for parent-child travel. Last summer, Chinese consumers undertook trips amounting to some 1.84 billion person-times, significantly higher than during the same period of 2019, or before the COVID-19 pandemic, and many scenic spots received a record number of tourists, according to the China Tourism Academy.

Based on summer travel product orders so far, nearly half of the tourists who plan to travel domestically are families with children, and this group accounts for 53 percent of the total for outbound travel, according to Trip.com.

Among those that have booked travel products this summer, consumers born in the 1980s and 1990s form the backbone, and each accounts for 50 percent and 18 percent of the total, respectively, Trip.com said.