Chinese dragon still building steam

Chinese dragon still building steam with strong growth in Chinese international travel numbers

• Latest Hotels.com™ Chinese International Travel Monitor highlights younger millennials and affluent travellers fuel 20 per cent growth in Chinese outbound travellers[1]

• New Zealand revealed as the country where Chinese travellers spent the most on hotel accommodation globally in 2014

• New Zealand in top 20 list of countries Chinese travellers intend to visit in the next 12 months; also amongst the most welcoming

Auckland, New Zealand – 15 July, 2015: In case you think you’ve noticed more Chinese sightseers lately, you’re not mistaken. According to global accommodation booking website Hotels.com, Chinese travellers continue to take the world by storm, their numbers up 20 per cent to 107 million in 20141. And there’s seemingly no stopping the rising tide, with the land of the long white cloud in their sights too.

More than 264,000 visitors from China arrived in New Zealand in 2014, representing an increase of more than 15 per cent on the previous year[2] while China remained New Zealand’s second-highest inbound market after Australia last year[3].

What’s more, according to the latest Hotels.com Chinese International Travel Monitor, Chinese travellers are younger, more independent-minded and tech-savvy – and increasingly cashed up. The report reveals too that New Zealand was the country where Chinese travellers spent the most on hotel accommodation globally in 2014.

The Hotels.com report also highlights the need for hoteliers to cater to Chinese travellers’ needs such as Chinese-speaking staff, Chinese-language tourist guides and dedicated websites.

Credible insights from travellers, hoteliers and proprietary data
The fourth edition of the Hotels.com™ Chinese International Travel Monitor provides detailed insights into how outbound travel movements by mainland Chinese are impacting the global travel industry. It combines data from more than 3,000 Chinese international travellers and 1,500 Hotels.com accommodation partners globally with Hotels.com’s own data and other third-party research.

The rise of the Chinese luxury traveller
A feature of this year’s results is the growing financial muscle of the top 10 per cent of travellers in terms of their travel spend. On RMB 13,800 (NZ$2,927) per day including accommodation, they parted with over 4 times more than that of the average traveller, who spent a total of RMB 3,324 (NZ$705) per day. However, this pales into insignificance in comparison with the top five per cent of spenders, who shelled out six times more than the average (RMB 20,896/ NZ$4,433), indicating the emergence of a ‘super-luxury’ class of traveller.

Increasing influence of ‘millennials’
The Hotels.com Chinese International Travel Monitor also identifies the growing influence of Gen Y travellers – the so-called tech-savvy ‘millennials’ aged 18 to 35. Fifty-nine percent of hoteliers surveyed say they’ve experienced an increase in Chinese guests aged 35 or under in the past year and they expect this trend to continue to grow. The growth is especially strong in the Asia Pacific region, where 78 per cent of hoteliers reported an increase.

Tech-savvy with a preference for booking online
Using the internet to research and book overseas trips has become the norm for Chinese travellers, while the use of mobile phones for planning and booking their travel has skyrocketed. In the past 12 months, 80 per cent of Chinese travellers have used an online device including mobiles, desktops and laptops to plan and book travel, compared with only 53 per cent last year. Half of all Chinese international travellers now use apps on their smart phones to plan and book trips, up from just 17 percent the year prior.

Hotels.com responds to the rise of Chinese international travellers
Recognising the growing importance of the Chinese travel market, Hotels.com launched a Chinese-language website in 2009. A range of bespoke Hotels.com apps for smart phones and tablets is also available in simplified Chinese, while popular Chinese third-party online payment solution Alipay have been introduced as a payment option for Chinese customers.

Commenting on this year’s Hotels.com Chinese International Travel Monitor, Katherine Cole, Regional Director, ANZ & Singapore for the Hotels.com brand, says: “Hotels.com’s report is a reminder for countries like New Zealand to pull out all the stops to accommodate Chinese travellers and tailor their services for this market, as the potential is huge.”

“This 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. Many hoteliers have already recognised the benefits of free Wi-Fi as well as Chinese-language information and booking websites,” Ms Cole said.

Other key findings of the Hotels.com Chinese International Travel Monitor 2015:
• Australia, Japan and France are the top three countries Chinese travellers intend to visit in next 12 months. New Zealand was in 13thplace, one spot ahead of Canada
• Outbound Chinese travellers rate New Zealand as one of the top 20 most welcoming countries at 13th place
• According to Hotels.com booking data, in New Zealand, Sweden and Argentina, Chinese travellers were the biggest spenders on hotel accommodation in 2014.
• Of the landmarks outside China they’d most like to visit in their lifetimes, Auckland’s Mount Eden makes the top 50 at equal 34th place with North Cape in Norway ahead of Uluru across the Tasman, and Scotland’s Lochness
• According to the number of rooms booked on the Hotels.com Chinese website in 2014, the top three countries which Chinese travellers visited were the USA, Thailand and Hong Kong.
• In the past 12 months, 80 per cent of Chinese travellers have used an online device including mobiles, desktops and laptops to plan and book travel, compared with only 53 per cent last year.
• The top 10 per cent of Chinese travellers spent an average of 2,723 RMB (NZ$578) per night on hotels alone.

ENDS

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