For China Outbound Tourism, Number Slowing Down & Destination Changing Quietly
- On August 22, 2019
- china outbound market, China outbound tourism
China’s outbound travel market has begun to show signs of stabilization. Recently, the Data Center of the Ministry of China Culture and Tourism Research Institute released a new report for the first half of 2019. According to statistics, in the first half of 2019, the number of outbound tourists in China was about 81.29 million, a year-on-year increase of 14%, a slowdown of 1 percentage point from the first half of last year.
In the industry’s view, the reason is, on the one hand, the objective impact of the continuous expansion of China’s outbound travel base; on the other hand, the recent trend of many popular outbound destinations has cooled significantly, leading to a pattern of Chinese outbound travel. Adjustment period.
According to a report jointly released by China Tourism Research Institute and Ctrip, although participating in travel agencies and group tours is still the main way of outbound travel, the proportion of this group has shown a significant downward trend. According to statistics, the proportion of tourists who traveled through the team in the form of outbound travel last year reached 55.24%, and 50.65% of the respondents indicated that they are willing to participate in the tour group in the future outbound travel, which is lower than that in 2017. However, behind this, the hot situation of online and group tours is still going on. It is reported that in the first half of this year, the number of tourists who only went through the Ctrip platform to sign up with group tour products increased by 43% year-on-year.
In the industry’s view, new changes such as the slowdown in the number of outbound travellers are actually directly affected by the rapid outbreak of China’s diversified outbound travel, which also makes people’s traditional impressions of popular destinations “rank”. Change quietly.
In the first half of 2019, although the main destination countries and regions where Chinese tourists left the country were still relatively concentrated in the Asian market, the European market was highly visible. In the past three years, the number of Chinese tourists to Europe has grown at an average annual rate of 10%. In 2018, there were more than 6 million people going to Europe. The top 20 countries in China are among the top 20 European countries, including the “Belt and Road” countries. In Eastern Europe, the number of people leaving the country is the highest in Europe, reaching 36%, and the fastest growth rate is over 20%. It is estimated that the number of people going to Europe in the first half of 2019 will reach 3 million, an increase of 7.4%.
Thailand, which has been the most popular destination for Chinese tourists for many years, has experienced a negative growth in the number of mainland tourists in the first half of this year. Although the number of foreign tourists receiving in Thailand increased by 1.48% from January to June, the number of mainland tourists visiting Thailand was 5,560,400, down 4.73% year-on-year. Coincidentally, in the United States, which has been very popular in long-distance travel destinations, there has also been a decline in the popularity of Chinese tourists.
Compared with previous years, the choice of Chinese tourists for outbound travel has become more diversified, and the frequency of travel has increased significantly. Personalized, customized and quality travel products and services are becoming mainstream in the depth of travel.