Outbound travel from China is set to receive a long-awaited jolt as “Golden Week” bookings show changes in where and why Chinese travel.
Encouraged by falling airfares, Chinese travelers are booking more overseas trips for the National Day holiday period, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7, according to Fliggy, a major travel booking platform in China. .
Data from Fliggy, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, shows travelers are heading to many of their usual haunts in Asia Pacific: Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea plus Australia as well as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in Southeast Asia . The United States also made the list, it said.
But for the most part, the fastest growth in bookings is for travel to places outside the region: Chile, Croatia, Belgium, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka, the company’s data shows.
A report published on September 23 by Goldman Sachs Equity Research estimated that China’s domestic travel volume would increase by a “distinct 5-6%” compared to last year’s holiday season. However, “outbound travel growth is likely to remain strong, +62% year-on-year” — or about 94% of 2019 levels, it said.
Longer trips, earlier bookings
Trip.comChina’s largest online travel agency, also shows a “significant shift” to long-haul destinations for the upcoming Golden Week, with Australia, the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France and Spain topping the list between long distance bookings.
The average booking for Golden Week this year is more than seven days, but those heading to Europe are staying up to twice as long, according to the company.
While most Golden Week travelers choose mid-range accommodation, growth for five-star hotels in Europe is almost three times higher in Europe than in Asia Pacific, according to company data.
Long-haul travel bookings are open for the upcoming Golden Week, with top destinations including the UK, as well as Australia and New Zealand, according to Trip.com.
Oscar Wong | Moment | Getty Images
According to Trip.com, nearly 1 in 3 travelers in Europe booked multi-destination itineraries, while 80% of Golden Week bookings within Asia Pacific are for single-destination trips, according to Trip.com.
ASEAN states have discussed creating a Schengen-style visa to incentivize travelers to visit multiple countries while in the region. However, so far, the visa — which will apply to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam — has not been implemented.
Another sign of recovery? Travelers are planning trips in advance, a sign of growing travel confidence. Travelers applied for visas an average of 68 days before their trips, about 29 days earlier than last year, according to Trip.com.
Looking for quiet and concerts
As Chinese tourists continue to stray from organized overseas sightseeing, more are looking to celebrate Golden Week in unlikely locations, especially in Asia and Europe, according to Trip.com data.
Bookings for Japan show travelers are skipping Tokyo and Kyoto for places like Yokohama, Takayama and Ito, which saw triple-digit growth during the Golden Week period, the company said. Interest in visiting the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc is also on the rise, its data showed.
In Europe, bookings in Spain were up 260% in the city of Granada and 144% in Seville, according to Trip.com.
A Fliggy report shows that more travelers rent cars and book cruises during Golden Week, while interest in outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and sailing also increased.
Like in the rest of the world, live entertainment is a huge driver for Chinese travelers.
According to Trip.com, more than 75% of Golden Week travelers visiting Asia Pacific are millennials, who are booking trips to Hong Kong to see John Legend, as well as K-pop acts such as Taemin and Taeyang.
Hong Kong is expected to welcome up to 1.2 million Chinese visitors during the upcoming Golden Week, up 10 percent from last year, according to the city’s Travel Industry Council.
Spending is expected to be resilient
Despite the ongoing turmoil in China’s economy, travelers are spending almost 6% more than during last year’s Golden Week, according to Fliggy.
In a report on Chinese online travel agencies, HSBC Global Research said, “We are bullish on Golden Week … as we expect traffic to grow strongly due to lower airfares and hotels.”
Citing Beijing-based online travel agency Qunar, the report notes that Chinese from smaller cities are choosing to travel abroad now.
According to Qunar, outbound travel is increasing to lower-tier cities, with bookings from third-tier and below “up 2.5x year-on-year, and those from second-tier cities at +76%.”
