Chinese Travellers

Luxury spending made easier for Chinese visitors.

Chicago Tribune
Chicago's charms surprise Chinese tourism officials
Chicago Tribune
When Chinese tourism official Hu Xuefan arrived in Chicago for a travel industry summit this week, he came with virtually no image of the city in his mind.

Opinion: New wave of Chinese tourists will shun the package tour
Travel Weekly UK
The first wave of China's outbound tourism, which began from small numbers in 1997, has produced a none-too-friendly image of the typical Chinese tourist.

China's tourism is "at the cusp of a multi-decade" boom similar to the trend seen in Japan three decades ago, says ANZ.

Chinese travelers, at 83 million in 2012, make up a sizeable group of consumers, so it is understandable that talk of a slowdown in the world's second largest economy could make countries dependent on China tourism receipts a little nervous.

Read the full story here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100938505

Destinations such as Australia, UK and America need to understand how to service the premium traveller, if they want luxury travel business from any of China's one million millionaires.

"We simply don't understand how to service the premium traveller," said Thomas, who believes elite Chinese travellers need to experience better human 'software' when they visit the West.

"The Chinese traveller wants to be handled by people who understand their culture, not just language," said China Luxury Travel Network's founder, Lin Xu.

Xu said that there were in reality about 2.7 million US dollar millionaires in China as many exist "under the radar". And it is a group that averages about three foreign trips a year, creating a booming luxury travel demand of up to nine million trips per year.

Millionaires, the rising middle class and brand-conscious aspirational travellers from the mainland account for about 25% of all international luxury brand consumption. Xu told the audience the total spend was about US$102 billion in 2012 with online spend alone worth around US$57 billion.

"China is modernizing, not Westernizing".

"Affluent Chinese travellers simply won't travel in big groups any more," said Xu. "The key to success will be if travel experiences really suit China's new consumer needs and trends".

Irish Examiner
Why Chinese Outbound Tourism Is a Good Bet
Wall Street Journal
Why Chinese Outbound Tourism Is a Good Bet. The U.K. is the latest country to relax visa rules for visitors from China.

On the back of increased Melbourne direct flights, more Chinese tourists are discovering and delighting in the best Melbourne has to offer. Be part of the wh...

Asia's Week: Chinese Travel Crush Signals Next Surge
Forbes
Throngs at Chinese tourist sites during the just-finished national holiday were news worldwide.

Earlier this month we launched our Skift Trends Report subscription service, and as part of that, the first report “Rise of the Chinese Independent Traveler” is most definitive report ever done covering what the next generation of Chinese travelers want from their experience.

While outbound travel for Chinese mainland citizens is still dominated by group tours that often bus the tourists from city to city, its growth is slowing when compared to the meteoric rise of independent tourism. Fully independent outbound tourism is growing even faster than foreign travel in general, and the market is still in its infancy. This trend goes hand-in-hand with a demographic sea change for China: a second generation of affluent consumers coming of age.

Photos of the Great Wall of China covered in tourists as thick as ants on a forgotten picnic treat often causes laughter over the plight of the domestic Chinese tourist.

A recent survey by FT China Confidential shows the wealthiest 26 per cent of outbound tourists spent an average of Rmb32,628 ($5,241) on their most recent overseas trip, with shopping accounting for almost half the total spend (Rmb15,699).

Furthermore, this cohort of 21m travellers, which we expect to grow significantly in the coming years, plans to spend an average of Rmb43,770 ($7,032) on their next overseas trip this year, representing a 34 per cent increase on their most recent trip.

So, if the outbound trips of China’s high-flying consumer cohort materialise as planned, a total of roughly US$160bn may be spent, according to the survey of 1,227 consumers in ten first- and second-tier Chinese cities by China Confidential, a research service of the Financial Times.

A record 1 billion tourists crossed international borders in 2012, and Chinese travelers are becoming a bigger and bigger part of it. Outbound tourists rose from 16.6 million in 2002 to 70.3 million in 2011, and are expected to rise to 82 million this year, up 17 percent. Those numbers are expected to rise to a whopping 200 million by 2020, and the world needs to get ready to absorb that many extra tourists. And especially tourists spending money: UNWTO figures show that year on year, Chinese tourists spent 30 percent more when travelling abroad in 2012 than previous year.

From hotels, airports, malls and retailers hiring Manadarin speaking concierge services, to countries easing visa norms and doing joint marketing agreements with China, everyone wants the hordes of Chinese travelers spending money, especially the recession and debt crisis beset European and North American countries: U.S., UK and Australia are banking on Chinese visitors to shore up their sputtering economies.

Neighboring destinations like Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singpore, already very popular with Chinese, are re-architecting their tourism policies wholesale to accomodate these big numbers. Even countries like Gambia, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, not on any mainstream tourism map, are stepping up their marketing efforts to lure the mainland travelers.

If you’re in travel anywhere in the world and don’t have an evolved and nuanced China strategy, you aren’t a serious player in 2013.

What follows is a list of 32 countries that are actively strategizing and employing methods to increase Chinese visitor arrivals in 2013 to build a more lucrative tourism market.