Big-spending Chinese travellers are pumping thousands of dollars per day into destination economies, a new report has revealed.
According to the ‘Chinese International Travel Monitor 2015’ by Hotels.com, the top 5% of Chinese travellers – the so-called “super-luxury” class – spend an average of US$3,368 per day when travelling overseas – six times higher than the average spend of Chinese outbound travellers (US$536 per day).
The top 10% of Chinese travellers spend US$2,225 per day, including US$439 per night on hotels alone.
Disposable personal income in China grew to an all-time high of US$4,649 in 2014, giving the country’s citizens more money to spend on travel. This contributed to a 20% rise in outbound Chinese tourists last year, to a record 107 million.
And according to forecasts, this is expected to grow to 174m Chinese outbound tourists by 2019, who will spend a total of US$264 billion in their destinations.
And by this time, travellers aged 25 to 35 are expected to make up 35% of total outbound travellers. Hotels.com’s study revealed at 59% of hoteliers surveyed said they’ve experienced an increase in Chinese guests aged 35 or under in the past year. The growth is especially strong in the Asia Pacific region, where 78% of hoteliers reported an increase.
This is also driving a trend towards online and mobile bookings. In the past 12 months, 80% of Chinese travellers have used an online device, including mobiles, desktops and laptops, to plan and book travel, compared with only 53% in 2013. And half of all Chinese international travellers now use apps on their smartphones to plan and book trips, up from just 17% the year prior.
“Hotels.com’s latest report reveals several themes emerging, not least the expanding influence of Chinese ‘millennial’ travellers, an increasingly more affluent Chinese traveller, and the explosion in the use of technology, in particular mobile, as part of the accommodation research and booking process,” said Abhiram Chowdhry, Hotels.com’s vice president & managing director for Asia Pacific. “Many Hoteliers have already recognised the benefits of free Wi-Fi as well as Chinese-language information and booking websites.”
In terms of destination, Hong Kong, Taipei and Bangkok were the most searched-for cities on Hotels.com’s Chinese website in the first five months of 2015. The top nine destinations were all in Asia, with Paris 10th.
Top five city searches on Hotels.com’s Chinese site (Jan-May 2015)
1) Hong Kong
2) Taipei
3) Bangkok
4) Seoul
5) Phuket
Top five non-Asian city searches on Hotels.com’s Chinese site (Jan-May 2015)
1) Paris
2) New York
3) Las Vegas
4) London
5) Los Angeles
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