Notes on the Chinese Market:
● Marketing strategists who are both eager and anxious to re-enter the Chinese travel market, once it opens up after the shadow of the COVID-19 global pandemic passes over, would do well to give a listen to last week’s Dragon Trail International—it’s a marketing and research company headquartered in Beijing with offices in London—held a seminar on China’s “Silver Travelers,” which is certainly not as monolithic as one might think.
Using a wide range of source material, Sienna Parulis-Cook, Dragon Trail’s director of marketing and communications, walked listeners and viewers through a statistical and demographic terrain that should
—There are now 250 million Chinese aged 60 and above, with middle-aged and older households account for 22 percent of Chinese households.
How does one define the older-senior-mature-silver generations? (1930-1970)
Post-30s: 82-91 years
Post-40s: 72-81 years
Post 50s: 62-71 years
Post-60s: 52-61 years
Post-70s: 42-51 years
—For practical purposes (i.e., so that listener and presenter are using the same definition), we used the 60-70 population as a core market. Still, there’s more.
Wavemaker* China’s 3 Senior Segments
* Wavemaker is a London-based global media agency
—In China, the retirement age for women is 50 or 55, depending on the job.
For men, it is 60.
—”Compared to senior markets in other nations, China has younger retirees who much younger–they are old enough to no longer be part of the workforce, but young enough to still be engaging in active travel.”—Parulis-Cook
Size of the Travel Market: Outbound
Notes on the Size of the Travel Market Outbound
—24 percent of seniors in tier 1-3 cities have traveled abroad, reaching 47 percent in first-tier cities. As of 2019, senior Chinese outbound travelers went abroad and average one time per year, rising to 1.7 times per year in first-tier cities. (Wavemaker)
—In the first half of 2019, 50 percent of Chinese tourists to Europe were born in the 1950s and 1960s (aged 49-69), with another 12 percent born in the 1970s. (HCG Travel Group and Ctrip)
—In the first half of 2018, 29 percent of Chinese tourist to Africa were born in the 1950s and 1960s. (COTR)
—Chinese tourists to South America are primarily high-end travelers aged 40-65.
“While millennial and Gen Z Chinese travelers might be making up be making up the majority of all outbound tourists, it’s really the older Chinese that may be more likely to have the time, the money and experience to go into these long-haul markets.”—Parulis-Cook
Travel Companions: Group Travel Preferences for Tour Products among Older Chinese
“We can see that older Chinese are maybe looking for a travel experience that’s a bit more to their taste and lasting even when they’re on a group tour compared to those really rushed kind of traditional Chinese group tours that we think about.”— Parulis-Cook
Click here for a recording of the seminar.
● Chinese Domestic Tourism Travel Down More than 50 percent in 2020: Data released last week by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism indicated that 2.8 billion trips were made by Chinese in 2020—down 52.1 percent from the year in 2019, as China worked at a stable recovery of domestic travel market. As reported by the Global Times—it is an official state-backed publication—there are also these numbers:
—In 2020, Chinese people’s spending on cultural and tourism activities exceeded 108 billion yuan ($16.71 billion), an increase of 2.35 billion yuan, or 2.1 percent over the previous year. On average each Chinese individual has spent 77.08 yuan on culture and tourism consumption, up 1.3 percent from 2019.
—The recovery rate in cultural and tourism sector is better than expected, especially since the second half of 2020, experts said.
Zhang Lingyun, a professor of tourism development at Beijing International Studies University, told the Global Times that the global pandemic brought on by the COVID 19 virus has led to changes in new styles of travel patterns—for example, self-driving holidays, short distance trips and duty-free shopping saw strong growth last year.
● Night Time is the Right Time to Shop for Chinese: In one of those studies that hopes to seek out any possible behavior that could be converted to improving the marketing of travel and tourism products, global travel service provider Trip.com has released its latest data on mainland China’s night-time economy and night-time tourism consumption during the first half of 2021. The data release gives context and delves into the trends shaping night-time tourism and consumption Using booking and user data, we have compiled key points to help shed light on the patterns shaping this growing consumer segment.
—First, what is the night-time economy? The night-time economy refers to all economic activity that occurs between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. in the service sector, spanning a wide range of business activity, including transportation, attractions, food and beverage, tourism, entertainment and more.
| Night-time attraction bookings increased 469 percent compared to last year |
—On average, Chinese consumers made 1.3 night-time attraction bookings in the first half of 2021, spending 187 yuan ($29) per person. Night-time attraction bookings made on the Trip.com Group Ctrip platform increased by 469 percent compared to 2020, and increased by 120 percent compared to 2019. 40 percent of night-time attraction bookings were for attractions located within a short-haul travel radius.
—Female tourists make more night-time attraction bookings. According to Trip.com Group data, women make up 53 percent of the tourists making night-time attraction bookings, 6 percent higher than their male counterparts.
—Gen Z is a driving force behind night-time tourism sales. Post-90s consumers (people born after 1990) make up 34 percent of the tourists making night-time travel product bookings, while post-80s and post-00s users account for 29 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Trip.com Group data reveals that Gen Z is becoming a major driving force behind night-time consumption, and suggests businesses to develop more engaging, youthful travel products.
—Tourists tend to consume more at night. The demand for more immersive night-time tourism products also feeds into the secondary consumption tourists bring to destinations. Although bookings rates are usually lower in the night-time, secondary consumption is often higher than that in the daytime.
Read the complete release/article here.
