France is still the preferred travel destination for wealthy Chinese travellers, a new report has found.
The latest edition of the ‘Chinese Luxury Traveler’ study by Hurun Report, which was produced in tandem with luxury travel show ILTM, found that France was identified by 34.0% of Chinese travellers as their preferred international luxury travel destinations, ensuring it keeps top spot. The US (33.8%) maintained second place, but Singapore (26.5%), Switzerland (23.1%) and the UK (22.2%) all moved up the rankings to third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
Australia however, fell from third to seventh on the list, marking a significant drop for the country that spent the last two years in the top three.
Interestingly, France topped the list for luxury travellers from both Beijing and Shanghai, but high-end travellers from the Chinese capital identified Italy as their second most preferred destination. For Shanghai travellers however, Italy only ranked ninth, below Japan. In terms of domestic destinations, Sanya was top ahead of Hong Kong, Yunnan, Tibet and Hangzhou.
Demonstrating China’s outbound spending power, Hurun Report revealed that Chinese luxury travellers spend an average of EUR875 (US$1,140) per trip – the most of any nationality. In fact 11% of Chinese travellers spend more than US$10,000 (excluding flights) per trip.
Chinese shoppers also ranked top, for the third consecutive year, in terms of spending on duty free shopping, and the year-on-year growth rate is still around 50%.
The number of Chinese purchasing property overseas has also increased, with the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, London and Sydney identified as the most popular locations. For high-end Chinese travellers who choose to stay in hotels, Shangri-La was identified as the most popular brand, followed by Hilton, Peninsula, Sheraton and Grand Hyatt.
According to data from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the country generated 83 million outbound travellers in 2012, an increase of 18.4% year on year. This is expected to reach 94m in this year.
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