Favorable exchange rates, relaxed visa policies and economic recovery are all factors that have contributed to a record-high outbound tourism and expenditure by Chinese travelers during Spring Festival 2015. A total of 5.182 million outbound trips (excluding visitors to Hong Kong and Macau) were recorded from February 18 to 24, according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).
Japan tourism craze
Ctrip’s worldwide daily online bookings for 445 global destinations shot up by 1,000 times during the period, compared to regular trading.
Ctrip reported in its 2015 Spring Festival Tourism Consumer Stocktaking that tourism spending grew more than 50% to total one billion RMB, with outbound tourism comprising 70%.
Japan was a hit destination, thanks to the yen’s devaluation, the government’s expansion of the range of duty-free products, and“zero complaint” by Chinese visitors. Word-of-mouth on Japanese hospitality and etiquette has led an increasingly large number of Chinese to choose Japan over long favored destinations like Korea and Southeast Asia.
Shopping remains the key draw
The destinations registering the highest spending were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, France, Singapore and Italy, according to Ctrip’s data on global shopping. Chinese shoppers account for up to 50% of customers in duty-free shopping meccas like Hong Kong’s T Galleria, Paris’s Galeries Lafayette, Seoul’s Lotte Department Store and Florence’s The Mall.
Thailand recorded 530,000 Chinese visitors during this year’s Spring Festival who generated 23 billion baht in revenue, according to the Tourism Authority Thailand.
Chinese National Holiday and Spring Festival are the peak seasons for Chinese consumer activity all over Japan. Japanese department stores, restaurants, hotels, amusement centers and duty free shopping sectors are all aggressively targeting Chinese customers in their promotion strategies. Japan expanded its duty free shops to 10,000 nationwide to handle inbound Chinese tourists during the Chinese National Holiday in October 2014. This year
Spring Festival themed events were held in major cities like Nagasaki, Osaka and Nagoya and also in Hokkaido and Yamanashi Prefectures. (Translation by David)
