Overseas trips by Chinese tourists increase, but stays become shorter

After two decades of rapid and mostly double-digit growth, China has developed into one of the leading global travel markets. However, the strong growth in overseas travel in the past few years has been generated by short trips of up to one week, with the number of longer trips declining. This analysis is the result of an evaluation of the World Travel Monitor by IPK International that was commissioned by ITB Berlin.

According to official statistics, outbound Chinese travelers from the Chinese mainland went on 105 million trips in 2014. However, this includes 41 million day-trips and shopping trips, mostly from southern regions, to the Macao and Hong Kong special administrative regions. Of the remaining 64 million overseas trips with at least one overnight stay, 27.4 million also had Macao and Hong Kong as their destination. Excluding Hong Kong and Macao, Chinese made 36.6 million international trips.

According to calculations from the World Travel Monitor, those 36.6 million international trips generated 171 million overnight stays in 2014. In comparison to 2007, the number of overseas trips has increased by 168 percent, which represents an average annual growth rate of 16.5 percent. However, the number of nights spent abroad only grew by 27 percent in total, which was equivalent to 3.5 percent per year. This was due to a dramatic reduction in the length of overseas trips.

Trip length almost halved

While Chinese travelers spent 10 nights abroad on average in 2007, the average length of an overseas trip almost halved to 5.5 nights in 2014. The reason for this was explosive growth of 444 percent in short international trips of up to three nights, which averages a 27 percent increase per year. In general, the strong growth in the last seven years was purely due to short trips of up to one week. In contrast, the number of longer trips has declined.

Of international trips made by Chinese travelers, 80 percent are for holidays. The main growth drivers over the last seven years were city trips, tours and event visits. Beach holidays also won market share. Business trips (16 percent) increased by 5 percent per year while visits to friends and relatives (4 percent) stagnated at nearly 1 million overseas trips.

Above-average growth was seen in trips within Asia and to North America in the last seven years. At 68 percent, Asia dominates Chinese international tourism, while 18 percent of Chinese visited Europe, 9 percent traveled to Australia/Oceania and 5 percent visited the rest of the world. Europe has expanded strongly as a destination for Chinese travelers, with a 7.5 percent increase per year, but lost market share to other regions of the world due to their stronger growth rates.

The top mode of transport with an 80 percent share is air travel. The extremely high growth rate for cruises is remarkable, although their market share is still very low at just 1 percent, although this soared by as much as 1,300 percent over the period under review.

The Internet is the most important booking platform for overseas trips. The number of bookings made on the Internet has risen by nearly 1,300 percent in the past seven years. Four out of five Chinese research and book online, selecting by far most often offers from travel agents and tour operators. Direct bookings of accommodation and transport, at 17 percent each, also have significant growth potential.

Luxury hotels favored

Dramatic changes in the choice of accommodation for Chinese travelers can also be observed. The share of overnight stays at first class hotels increased by 28 per cent annually and has risen to 55 percent, at the expense of budget hotels. The proportion of Chinese with higher education and high incomes represents a customer segment for international trips that is growing much more strongly than average. The increasing number of trips with children is also noticeable. These have risen tenfold over the last seven years and now comprise one-third of all foreign trips.

Martin Buck, senior vice-president of Messe Berlin, said: "Although experienced Chinese travelers are increasingly planning and traveling on an individual basis, the majority still books overwhelmingly with tour operators. Security is the most important factor for the Chinese when planning their travel, and that is what package trips offer. Foreign languages and the lack of multilingual signs in destinations still comprise a barrier that can be overcome with tour guides. Tour operators score with tourists from China with attractive packages and quality service."

Alongside its evaluations of IPK International's World Travel Monitor, ITB Berlin also publishes the core data of the World Travel Monitor, including assessments by some 50 tourism experts from more than 20 countries, in the ITB World Travel Trends Report 2015/16 in early December. Rolf Freitag, president of IPK International, will present the final results of the World Travel Monitor for the entire year, as well as the latest forecasts for 2016, at the ITB Future Day of the ITB Berlin Convention. The World Travel Monitor is based on the findings of representative interviews carried out every year with more than 500,000 people in over 60 travel markets worldwide. It has been conducted regularly for more than 20 years and is recognized as the largest continuous survey examining global travel trends.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/08/2015 page10)