In an article last week in the Asia Times headlined “Lone wolf travel more popular with young Chinese,” readers were able to glean some interesting and possibly useful info-bytes about these solo travelers:
—During the National Day “Golden Week” earlier this month, the number of Chinese who registered for group trips by themselves increased 56 percent over last year.
—Solo travelers are now the second-largest group of travelers in china—after family travelers—according to the Chinese OTA Qunar.
—Qunar also said that it found that the most popular activities that single travelers prefer to undertake during their excursions are diving, camping, hiking and cycling.
—There are today more than 240 million singles in China. Collectively, they form a bigger group than the combined population of Russia (146 million*) and the United Kingdom (68 million*).
—The trend will continue, as evidenced by that fact that, in 2018, 10.14 million couples registered to get married, 4.6 percent lower than in 2017. The marriage rate was 0.73 percent, according to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs.
—According to China’s largest travel agency, Ctrip, as of September, the number of singles who traveled with groups increased by 40 percent over last year, and those who traveled abroad with groups increased by 10 percent year on year.
—Said Neil Wang, president of the consultancy Frost & Sullivan in China, “The singles’ number is big, and this trend undoubtedly has implications for tourism, as when singles travel alone, they don’t need to consider the demands of companions, and they can choose destinations and plan their trips based on their own preferences.
* Estimates from Worldometers.info
For the complete article, click here.
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From Inside Retail Hong Kong last week, we learned some things about themed travel:
—Themed travel—a relatively new tourism category identified by marketers, including concepts such as health and wellness, wedding photography and self-drive tours—is a fast-growing trend among Chinese tourists – with more than two in three from mainland cities prepared to try it as a hobby.
—Saskia Zhao, travel and leisure analyst at Mintel China Reports, told the publication, “In light of this, companies in China’s travel industry are moving beyond simply offering traditional travel products and are introducing themed travel to the market. (Mintel Group Ltd is a privately owned, London-based market research firm. The corporation also maintains offices in Chicago, New York City, Mumbai, Belfast, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul.)
—Mintel research shows that “hobbies and in-depth travel experiences are what’s motivating Chinese consumers to try themed travel,” said Zhao.
—Research from Mintel also suggests a desire for new experiences seems to be what’s driving interest in the category. Three out of five urban Chinese respondents (of 3,000 surveyed online aged 20-49) say they are motivated to try themed travel because it would make a suitable hobby (66 per cent) and is an in-depth travel experience (64 per cent).
—Meanwhile, a relatively new concept—self-drive tours—are picking up in China, as 52 per cent of urban Chinese survey respondents said that they have taken the more common self-organized tour (excluding RVs and self-drive tours) for their personal leisure travels in the last 12 months, while 49 per cent say that they have taken self-drive tours.
—Self-drive tours are especially popular among the post-80s generation with 57 per cent of respondents having tried this way of themed travelling. This is followed by 48 per cent of post-90s and 41 per cent of post-70s consumers.
—Finally, Mintel said its research indicated that there is an opportunity for travel suppliers with health and wellness themed travel. As many as 74 per cent of Chinese respondents cited enjoying a slower-paced lifestyle as the most important reason to try health and wellness themed travel; while 67 per cent associate health and wellness themed travel with a nice environment and being beneficial to physical health.
To read the complete article, click here.
