Browse the articles included in our ‘Essential China Travel Trends’ dragon edition and learn about the Chinese travel & tourism market, its consumers and how to best reach out to them:
Outbound Tourism – In search of deeper meaningful travel experiences
By Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Director, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute
Chinese travellers are demanding more sophisticated travel experiences, reflecting the growing maturity of a sector that now generates greater receipts than inbound visitor earnings. China’s outbound tourism is entering its second phase, bringing new opportunities and challenges to destinations and tourism service providers worldwide. Chinese travellers are increasingly looking for travel experiences that go beyond simply ticking off major sights and the dubious pleasures of forced shopping. Accompanied by sharply focused marketing, products that go beyond welltrodden travel paths can emerge as “hot” properties to attract affluent visitors from China.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
A Decade of Travel Trends – Chinese outbound travel more than doubled in the last ten years
By Dennis Pyka, Director, World Travel Monitor® IPK International
Authoritative international travel survey shows China has become the 12th biggest travel market worldwide, with a doubling in the number of international trips in a decade. World Travel Monitor ® (WTM®), inaugurated since 1988 by IPK International to track international overnight travel of 60 major outbound markets worldwide, added Chinese outbound travel to the survey in 2000. Every January and February, 30,000 computer assisted personal interviews are carried out with randomly selected Chinese aged 15 years and older. The results for China (excluding overnight travel to Hong Kong and Macao) are collected in the global WTM® database. The key findings of the Chinese Outbound Travel Monitor® 2010 showed that China’s outbound market has come a long way within a decade.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Luxury Travel – China’s affluent set taking more holiday trips
By Rupert Hoogewerf, Founder, Hurun Report
With their net worth swelling, China’s affluent set is demanding more when travelling. A survey of China’s wealthiest shows them increasingly likely to splash out on flying business class, shopping and staying with well-known hotel brands. Thanks to rising property prices and a fast-growing GDP, the ranks of millionaires in China have been swelling. Boasting a million millionaires, China is now home to the largest number of self-made millionaires and billionaires in the world (a millionaire is any individual with personal wealth of RMB 10 million or more). The rise of private wealth coupled with the appreciation of the yuan and easing of visa applications are fuelling demand for luxury travel. Indeed travel has been identified as the preferred entertainment among the affluent set.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Travel Consolidation – Expanding China’s luxury travel hinges on travel consolidators
By Lin Xu, CEO, VariArts Travel Group
China’s capability in delivering luxury travel experiences lies in scaling up, but the domestic travel trade lacks the wherewithal to exploit the segment’s potential. Travel consolidators will help this segment take flight. With 16% annual growth forecast for domestic travel and a 10% annual expansion for inbound travel, China’s domestic travel industry will be worth RMB 3.9 trillion by 2020. Numbers such as these have led many research organisations to predict that China will soon eclipse Japan as the second-largest travel and tourism market in the world. Relatively untapped, the luxury travel segment in China has become the industry’s fastestgrowing sector. By opening its doors to international players, China has underscored the immense lucrative potential that exists at the luxury end of the market and its intention to develop the sector.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Tour Operation – Foreign competition will lift China’s outbound travel quality
By Marcel Schneider, CEO, TUI China
The opening of China’s outbound travel sector to foreign capitalised tour companies will lead to greater competition that will ultimately benefit Chinese travellers and pave the way for the gradual opening of the market to more international players. Meanwhile, the inbound sector continues to flourish with much room for all players to explore. Projected by the UNWTO to produce 100 million outbound travellers by 2020, China’s potential as an outbound travel source market generates incredible excitement. Until recently, however, only wholly Chinese-owned companies were eligible for an outbound business license. That changed in May 2011 when the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) announced a pilot project permitting three foreign-capitalised tour operators – TUI China, American-Express and JTB – to enter this potentially lucrative market.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Internet & Social Media – Connecting with Chinese Consumers online
By Jens Thraenhart, President & Co-founder, Dragon Trail
The increasingly sophisticated youth in China sees travel as a way of self expression. Marketers should note their online habits, their generational difference and their individuality when reaching out to them. China’s affluent consumers are typically 20 years younger than those in Western countries. Among them, the youth market – specifically people born in the 70s, 80s, and 90s – is the prime segment. As the Internet becomes the most important channel to connect with affluent consumers all over China, traditional media and events are no longer the best way to reach these consumers. Brands need to adapt their marketing strategies and the way they interact with customers when it comes to Chinese youth.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Customer Satisfaction – Satisfaction index spotlights service gap
By Dr. Xu Chen, Researcher, China Tourism Academy
Much has been said about the quality of service, or the lack of it, in China’s tourism industry. What is needed is a reliable mechanism to measure how satisfied visitors are with their experience. The China Tourist Satisfaction Index (CTSI) was created with that in mind. Inaugurated in 2008, CTSI is a nation-wide research programme that monitors and analyses the degree of improvement in tourist experience and service quality in major Chinese tourist cities. It also helps to determine whether China’s outbound travellers are happy with the services they receive. Based on surveys conducted by the China Tourism Academy, a specialised institute under the umbrella of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the index serves as an evaluation tool in weighing and testing the performance of related tourism service providers.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Hotel Regulation- Setting milestones for China’s hotel industry
By Liu Shijun, Director, India, China National Tourism Administration and
Lu Kailin, Section Chief, Hotel Division, Department of Industry Supervision and Management, CNTA
Having come of age during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China’s hotel industry is poised to enter the international stage and challenge the hospitality standards of developed destinations. China’s hotel industry had become more diversified and sophisticated during the 11th Five-Year Plan (FYP) period. Increasingly, hotels leveraged technology to deliver more efficient and personalised service, such as in-room digital delivery of information on hotel bills, flights, room service and entertainment, tablets in place of printed menus and customer relationship management systems tracking guests’ personal preferences. Online booking platforms have become a major tool for reservations and sales. Ctrip, for example, offers online real-time reservations for 32,000 hotels in 5,900 cities of 138 countries.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Hotel Profitability – Oversupply depresses profitability at China hotels
By Damien Little, Director, Horwath HTL
Abundant new hotel supply is hitting the bottom line of the entire China hotel industry. Regions in various stages of development will meet different fates. Some will tank, while the strongest regions will stay buoyant. Damien Little examines the impact of supply on the profitability of hotels in market types. The spectacular volume of new hotel supply that China has witnessed over the last 10 years has generated plenty of headlines. In all the discussion on China’s impressive growth, what has been overlooked is the impact on profitability that oversupply has brought to many markets. Data from the China Hotel Industry Study shows that 5-star hotels’ gross operating profit (GOP) levels declined every year from a peak in 2005 of RMB 150,353 per available room (PAR), to a record low in 2009 of RMB 91,752 PAR. The number improved in 2010 taking overall 5-star GOP back to RMB 117,448 PAR but this is still 22% below the 2005 peak.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
MICE Regulation – Turn red tape into road signs for successful events
By Kate Chang, Regional Director, Greater China, PATA
Regulations are a fact of life in business. Respecting cultural differences and using red tape as guidelines to what is achievable can go a long way to creating successful events in China. I am a believer of the Chinese proverb that “there are rules everywhere, be it in a nation or a family”. It is far better to understand and manage their impact than trying to cut corners, especially when conducting business in China. From its legal origins, red tape has today become a euphemism for regulations that are supposed to keep competing interests in check while protecting the common good. However, we tend to believe that regulations only slow the permission process and postpone decisions to cover up inefficiencies or protect vested interest.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
MICE Destination – Beijing should lift its game to climb the ranks
By Daniel Tschudy , Senior Advisor Special Projects, MCI
Beijing has come a long way in its quest to become one of the world’s top capital cities for tourism and MICE. It is today one of Asia’s Top 3 convention cities. However, it still has to overcome growing pains to truly live up to its place in the global league. In the global ranking of tourist arrivals to capital cities, Beijing has yet to find its place in the Top 10. However, given 2010’s 4.9 million arrivals and the Beijing Commission of Tourism Development’s (CTD) goal of doubling its performance, Beijing could potentially overtake New York in tourist arrivals by 2016. The future is looking bright for Beijing’s inbound tourism industry. The meeting and convention sector is without doubt the most lucrative segment of the inbound industry. The expenditure per night/per person of international corporate and association delegates is often two-and-a-half times higher than leisure travellers’.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Aviation – China’s rapid growth of airports, airlines, and air capacity
By Mario M. Hardy, Vice President Asia Pacific, UBM Aviation
China is already the world’s second largest economy after US and it is expected that it will overtake the US economy in 2016. As China’s GDP increases and disposable income levels rise, the population becomes wealthy enough to travel both within and outside the country’s borders. Due to the population of China and surrounding countries, there is a huge market opportunity for aviation businesses operating to/from and within China, which is currently only in its infancy phase. With more than 1.3 billion people, China is the world’s most populous country representing 20% of the world’s population. China’s population growth is stimulating the massive growth seen at the Chinese airports. All the top 20 cities in China have a population of over 3m inhabitants, compared to the US, which has only 2 cities (New York and Los Angeles) with a population of over 3m.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Green Evolution – Green growth, travelism and China’s development paradigm
By Prof. Geoffrey Lipman, Chief Disruption Architect, Green Earth Travel
There are clear signs travelism (travel and tourism) will be an increasingly important element as China adjusts its socio-economic model and plays a leading role in the long-term global green shift. Having earlier designated travel and tourism as a strategic pillar of economic development, China recently identified the sector as a domestic consumption engine in the 12th Five-year Plan. The policy has for some years been backed by a rapid development of new airports, high-speed trains and superhighways, providing the essential arterial network for travelism. Growing automobile production and purchase is another factor as is the plan’s goals to boost household income. The opportunity to travel – for leisure and business, domestically and internationally – will simply be more possible for more and more people.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Mobile Marketing – Mobile boom fuels travel app popularity
By George Cao, Co-Founder & CEO, Dragon Trail
The growing prevalence of smart phones with internet access augurs well for mobile apps targeting travellers. China’s mobile internet industry is growing at much faster rates than many developed countries. China is set to surpass one billion mobile connections by May 2012, according to Wireless Intelligence. About 22% of urban Chinese mobile phone users browsed the Internet on their phones at least once a week in 2010, up from 15% in 2009. Leading the trend are urban youth, with 41% using web browsing on their phones in 2010, compared to 29% in the year before. Not bad for a mobile phone market that boasts almost a billion total users and over 400 million users with Internet-enabled mobile phones, surpassing the number of PC internet users. According to the released data from three telco operators in China, there are 987.58 million mobile subscribers in China by end January 2012.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Human Resources – Recruiting and retaining talent in China
By Lesley Reynolds, CEO, Portfolio
The hotel and travel industry in China is experiencing some big challenges from a perspective of talent and human resourcing. On the one hand there is a completely inadequate supply of service trained people at all levels to satisfy the extraordinary pipeline of hotel, travel and related service infrastructure development signed for the coming years. On the other, we are witnessing changing attitudes towards the compensation packages provided to expatriate foreigners. At staffing level first, start by considering the size and scale of the issue. The service sector has for the last decade been the largest within the Chinese economy. In 2011 alone it was recorded that there 1.4million more job openings than there were applicants and this was up from a whopping figure of 1m the previous year. In this space, hospitality, leisure and travel are competing with the luxury retail market for the same English speaking, customer service oriented staff.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
China’s Growing Cities – Big opportunities beyond Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou
By K K Fung, Managing Director, Greater China, Jones Lang LaSalle
Jones Lang LaSalle highlights 50 secondary and tertiary cities across mainland China that offers substantial commercial real estate opportunities. The CHINA50 represents a continental-sized market of global scale. It is an economy of US$2.9 trillion, comparable to Germany. If it were a single entity, it would rank as the world’s fifth largest economy. Its cities are growing fast, outpacing the rest of China. The China50 will account for 12% of all global growth over the next decade. The 10 fastest-growing large cities in the world (by GDP) are all in the China50. Chongqing is the planet’s fastest-growing large city. Chengdu has emerged as the premier China50 real estate market; Chongqing, Shenyang and Tianjin have the strongest momentum; Wuhan and Xi’an offer good upside potential across multiple sectors.
To learn more, download the Essential China Travel Trends dragon edition booklet and read the full article.
Internet & Social Media – Connecting with Chinese Consumers online
