Companies that specialize in data analysis and research, as well as marketing and communications that do business with the Chinese travel market are regularly producing and distributing products aimed at helping travel suppliers and destinations with the latest technology and techniques designed to develop or increase market share.
When a particularly good survey, study or report comes to our attention, we like to share what we can from such works with our readers. Recently, we came across a new product put out by the Resonance Consultancy—a New York-based company best known for its annual “World’s Best Cities” ranking—in partnership with China Luxury Advisors: The Future of Chinese International Travel.
The 60-page report contains a wealth of new data on the Chinese traveler—from their favorite destinations and travel preferences to their preferred information sources and holiday activities. There are also a handful of case studies illustrating what some U.S. travel suppliers and destinations have done to increase their business and profile with the Chinese travel trade and travelers. We’ve sifted through the full report and have come up with what we believe are its salient points; a digested version of The Future of Chinese International Travel follows. Most of the content is taken directly from the publication, with some edits and changes on our part.
A Big Picture Getting Bigger: Over the next decade, the number of international Chinese travelers could nearly triple. The China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) predicts that international trips by the country’s residents will increase from 145 million in 2017 to more than 400 million by 2030. Because relatively few Chinese citizens have passports, the potential for growth in a country of 1.4 billion is huge. Ctrip CEO Jane Sun predicts that the number of Chinese passport holders will double to 240 million by 2020. If the numbers hold true, in just over a decade the Chinese will account for a quarter of all international travel around the globe.
Significantly, while Chinese travelers have only been venturing internationally a fraction of the time of western travelers—bear in mind that the country didn’t open up until 1978, and widespread overseas travel is a product of the new millennium—they’re rapidly making up for lost time and quickly mastering the steps to travel virtuosity.
In short, in less than a decade, Chinese travelers have gone from passive observers of the scene from the seat of a bus to active seekers of unique experiences… like travelers everywhere. As a result, it’s no longer enough to have Approved Destination Status, easy visa entry, a Mandarin website, a kettle in every hotel room and mobile pay options—although our study shows that payment options in particular can help. Offerings now need to keep pace with the blistering speed of Chinese travelers’ evolution into the less definable, more visceral realm of ‘experience.’
China, then, is more than just a threat. As more Chinese travel independently, over-tourism grows hand in hand with the opportunity to share the wealth with small, smart markets that can offer off-the-beaten-path and off-season experiences.
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
The Rise of the Independents: The world has been taken by surprise by the speed at which Chinese travelers have evolved from passive tour bus passengers to unfettered independent travelers. Most western observers are more familiar with the arc of North American experience in European travel and the dawn of travel independence in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Today, the great accelerator and boldness builder is mobile technology. It’s empowering travelers from solo women to Chinese families. A phone is a smart, experienced travel companion that knows not only where the closest café/bank/festival/landmark is but ranks it for you. Your maps mean you’re never, ever lost. And perhaps most important, you may be independent, but you’re never alone
How prevalent is independent travel today? When Resonance asked, “When you travel outside of Asia on vacation, how do you plan your next trip?” the top answer was still “Purchase a pre-planned tour to handle all accommodations and tour guides” at 28 percent, but it came only slightly ahead of “Purchase a package, but travel on my own without a guide.” Next was “Purchase my travel arrangements on my own, but hire a tour guide or driver,” followed closely by “Completely on my own with no package tour or tour guide.”
And unsurprisingly, for Millennial respondents, “Purchase a package, but travel on my own without a guide” is first, followed in a near tie with “Purchase my travel arrangements on my own, but hire a tour guide or driver” and “Completely on my own with no package tour or tour guide.”
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
Millennials are far more likely to travel solo than older travelers—10 percent versus 6 percent—but most Chinese like to travel with people they’re close to: most respondents want to travel with kids, followed by “with friends.” A distant third is “family without kids.” Fourth is multigenerational travel. “On my own” is least preferable for older travelers, who might lack the language skills and experience of their children or grandkids.
The desire for independent travel is most prevalent among younger Chinese in first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shenzhen—the so-called Bei-Shang-Guang-Shen—whose inhabitants are most likely to have already made overseas trips.
Until 1978, when China’s reform and opening up began under Deng Xiaoping, less than 20 percent of its population lived in cities, according to The Telegraph. Since then, tens of millions of rural Chinese have poured into urban places, and perhaps 250 million more will follow in their footsteps over the coming decade. That displacement will have given birth to 221 cities with a population of at least 1 million people by 2025, according to the global consulting firm McKinsey.
Call of the Wild: When we asked Chinese travelers their most important considerations for choosing vacation destinations, safety was first, as it is with travelers most everywhere in the world. Interestingly, quality of the natural environment/scenery is second, ahead of warm climate and even the iconic landmarks we associate with Chinese travel—the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge and others (4th), political climate (5th) and online peer reviews and ratings (e.g., Mafengwo, Qyer, Dianping) (6th).
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
Outside of Asia, one of the closest sources of a great natural environment and scenery is Australia, the destination our panel most intends to visit in the next 12 to 24 months. France, USA, Italy, New Zealand, Canada and Germany follow. This has not gone unnoticed by the Australians, for whom China is now the country’s largest source of short-term visitor arrivals, particularly around the Lunar New Year.
Active Leisure Blows up: For many Chinese travelers, leaving the country now also means definitively leaving their comfort zones. When we asked which activity they enjoy currently or would like to try, “swimming at a beach or hotel pools”’ and “cycling” topped the list. But “extreme sports” (like rock climbing and skydiving) are activities many travelers want to try. Skiing and snowboarding are already popular, as are watersports like water skiing, wakeboarding and surfing. Horseback riding has almost as many practitioners as those who want to try it, as does scuba diving.
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
It’s All about Mobile: For young Chinese travelers, mobile technology is what makes a trip real. Without the witnessing, researching, proving, bragging, booking and sharing it makes possible, there is literally no trip. Smartphones are more than a tool. They mean the world.
Travelers, particularly the young, make mobile an integral part of the travel experience. Daily or occasionally:
—91 percent visit websites to research things to see and do;
—89 percent post online reviews of experiences; 89% use travel guide apps;
—88 percent post photos on social media;
—90 percent daily or occasionally use their technology to make calls; and
—87 percent hourly or daily chat with friends on WeChat.
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
App & Platform Wars: Opposing apps are multi-purpose, hydra-headed and increasingly indispensable tools for living: WeChat, launched in 2011, provides messaging, social media and mobile payment and has an astonishing more than 1 billion monthly active users. Alipay, which debuted in 2004, has 520 million monthly active users, describing itself as having evolved from “a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler.”
While WeChat is the relative newcomer, its dominance as the de facto ‘life operating system’ is giving it a grip on young travelers, research shows that of Millennial overseas travelers, 80 percent daily or occasionally consult official WeChat accounts of destinations they visit, and 87 percent chat with friends hourly or daily on WeChat.
Source: The Future of Chinese International Travel
Case Studies
—Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho came together to promote self-drive itineraries in and around Yellowstone National Park
—Utah’s “How to Utah” video series. The Utah Office of Tourism engaged a young, bilingual influencer to create a series of engaging videos to help put the often-dizzying destination options and intimidatingly wide vistas and fragile environments in context for an audience of mainly urban and young Chinese professionals.
—City Experience Travel Guides: Seattle. Visit Seattle collaborated with WeChat to launch a Seattle city guide this year, integrating location-based search, mapping functionality, hotel and attraction information and a variety of other features into a MiniProgram that provides WeChat users with immediate resources in context
—The Beverly Center. The Beverly Center in Los Angeles has been actively marketing and adapting to the needs of Chinese tourists for five years. These comprehensive efforts include in-house advisors, specialized guest services in Chinese, local language Passport to Shopping for tourists, travel trade relationship building, student outreach, mobile and China UnionPay acceptance, Lunar New Year celebrations and more. Beverly Center has also spearheaded an industry-leading digital program targeting Chinese consumers. The tools include a dedicated Chinese website, as well as a ‘WeChat Mini-Program’ complete with Chinese language introductions.
—Caesars Entertainment, the leading global casino and hotel company, is constantly evolving technology and customer service. Caesars led the industry in obtaining WeChat’s first official service account in the U.S. and first direct booking on Chinese social media. It was also a leader in adopting Chinese mobile payments in the United States through its partnership with payment integration company Citcon.
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A note on methodology: Resonance Consultancy and China Luxury Advisors surveyed more than 3,000 mainland Chinese tourists who traveled internationally over a 12-month period about their long-haul, international travel preferences. The respondents were aged 20 and older. Those surveyed comprised a profile that included representative demographics, household income and regions of the country. Results reflect an online study conducted by China Luxury Advisors from March 8, 2018 to April 6, 2018.
