Survey: 93% Of Urban Residents Plan To Travel This Spring

Survey Of 2,700 Urbanites Carried Out By China Tourism Academy A new survey by the China National Tourism Academy should give those in the Chinese hospitality industry plenty of reason to be optimistic this spring -- among 2,700 urban respondents, the academy found that 93% plan to travel between March and June of this year. Among this 93%, more than half also plan to spend more on trips than they have in previous years. As expected, most respondents plan to visit nearby locations such as Hong Kong or Macau, although the numbers of tourists looking to visit foreign locales like Bali or the Maldives. Considering a six night trip to the Maldives is now apparently cheaper than one night in Sanya, Hainan province, this might not be a bad idea. From China Daily: The [China National Tourism Academy] forecast a 12-percent growth for the tourism industry this year, with total tourism revenue expected to exceed 1.44 trillion yuan. It is anticipated that domestic tourists will make 2.15 billion trips to mainland destinations, up 13 percent year-on-year. They will also make 51 million trips to foreign destinations as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 7 percent year-on-year. "People are willing to travel as a result of China's economic growth and the government's policy support," Li said. A separate survey of 3,000 netizens conducted by Ctrip.com, a major online travel service, showed that more than half plan to increase their travel budget this year. According to the one-month survey in January, 59 percent of those surveyed said they would spend more on travel this year, while 35 percent do not plan to change their budget. Only 6 percent said they would slash their travel budget. A quarter of those surveyed said they would spend more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,464) on travel throughout the year. About 30 percent expect to spend between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan, 40 percent to spend between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan, and only 6 percent plan to spend less than 1,000 yuan. As Jing Daily wrote last month, though many Chinese outbound tourists still treat foreign travel as a means for long-distance shopping trips, with the growing numbers of middle-class or younger tourists, it is expected that Chinese tourists will -- over the course of the next decade or so -- make a shift toward more experiential tourism. At the moment, however, it looks like the mainland Chinese tourism boom will mostly benefit group tour operators and retailers -- especially at the high end.

Survey: 93% Of Urban Residents Plan To Travel This Spring

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Published February 17, 2010

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Survey: 93% Of Urban Residents Plan To Travel This Spring