Data on Chinese outbound travel recovery, shared by Dragon Trail International (DTI) on the eve of the October 1 to 7 Golden Week holiday, shows travellers are making significantly more trips in 2024 compared to a year ago.
According to Sienna Parulis-Cook, DTI’s director of marketing and communications, China’s National Immigration Authority issued 15.82 million passports between January and August 2023, a 25% year-on-year increase.
She added that 2Q2024 data from Trip.com Group and Tongcheng show outbound hotel and flight reservations reaching 100% of pre-lockdown for the former, and record-breaking international flight sales – 160% year-on-year increase for the latter, which also saw a 140% jump in international hotel sales compared to 2023.
Speaking at the joint webinar, Nancy Dai, ForwardKeys China market expert, said its air ticket data showed travel departure during Golden Week at -15% versus 2019 and +32% for 2024 versus 2023.
Dai pointed out that outbound Chinese travel was growing steadily toward pre-lockdown levels with 1Q2024 at -28% vs 2019 and 2Q2024 at -24% vs 2019.
In other updates, Parulis-Cook noted Global Blue reported a 41% year-on-year increase in Chinese tax-free shopping spend in August, with Asia-Pacific achieving 162% compared to pre-lockdown and Europe 52%.
In August, VFS Global stated that visa applications at its China centres rose 88%, reaching 70% of the number in 2019.
Parulis-Cook said marketers should note Chinese travellers have “high interest in cultural activities”, are attracted by discounts and promotions, and “interest in almost every region in the world has grown”.
In terms of desired destination content, favourable policies such as visa waiver or relaxed entry requirements and promotional offers were the most important.
Expanding on the importance of budget and pricing for a specific product like cruising, Parulis-Cook said this was the top consideration, accounting for 52%, followed by the dining experience at 39%, and the cabin and facilities at 37%.
As for regional rankings, Janice Meng, DTI market research analyst, said its poll showed 80% of respondents’ most recent trip in 2024 was to Asia and 65.9% had booked or planned to visit the region.
Meng added that Europe was next with 12.5% having visited the continent on the most recent outbound trip, with 25.3% having a booking or planning to visit.
Based on ForwardKeys’ air ticket data, there is significant growth in direct connects between China and Europe, +12% vs 2019.
European cities with the highest direct seat capacity increases in 2024 vs 2019 show Milan, Madrid, Istanbul and London growing 67%, 61%, 35% and 24% respectively.
Dai also observed the rise of solo and couple travellers, the fall in group travellers, and that the top three cities in Asia during Golden Week are Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Macau.
Outside Asia, she named Istanbul, London and Moscow as the top three.
