In the first half of 2017, the number of Chinese who went to Japan exceeded 3.282 million, showing an increase of 6.67%. Compared to the growth rate of more than 20% in the past two years, growth significantly slowed down.

In the first half of 2017, Chinese travellers in Korea dropped by 40.97% to 2.253 million. However, the total number of Chinese passengers to Southeast Asia (SEA) soared, exceeding 10 million people in half a year. Therefore, it can be assumed that there is a shift in the travel demand from Japan and South Korea to countries in SEA.

Chinese Tourism to Thailand 

In September 2016, since Thailand rectified its “zero tour fees” policy, with the addition of the king’s passing, China’s tourism market to Thailand was impacted. In the first half of 2017, recovery is seen for China’s tourism market in Thailand, hitting about 4.712 million people, only down slightly by 3.8%.

From the Sino-Thai aviation market’s observation, regardless of the impact of the Spring Festival factors, the capacity from January-July 2017 has already exceeded the same period in 2016. Looking to the second half of 2017, despite the late Thailand king’s funeral in October 2017 which is likely to impact the industry, the number of Chinese tourists in Thailand is still likely to exceed last year, having a breakthrough of 9 million people.

Chinese Tourists to Cambodia 

In recent years, the number of Chinese travellers to Cambodia has grown steadily. In 2016, 830,000 Chinese travellers visited Cambodia, an increase of 19.47%. In the first half of 2017, Cambodia received 2.66 million international tourists, an increase of 12.8%, of which Chinese tourists accounted for 530,000 tourists, an increase of 39.9%.

From the current trend, the number of Chinese tourists to Cambodia is expected to exceed 1 million people in 2017. It is also worth mentioning that, with the continued warming of Sino-Cambodian relations, the number of business travellers to Cambodia has increased rapidly.

Chinese Tourists to Vietnam

From January-July 2017, the number of Chinese travellers in Vietnam is 2.217 million people, a substantial increase of 51%, with Vietnam becoming the most travelled to the destination in SEA for Chinese tourists. In the second half of 2017, if Sino-Vietnamese relations are stable, the total number of Chinese travellers in Vietnam in the entire year is expected to have a breakthrough of 4 million people.

Chinese Tourists to Singapore

Currently, Singapore only has the numbers from January-May 2017, whereby the number of Chinese tourists in Singapore reached 1.335 million, an increase of 6.67%. Following Singapore Airlines Air Navigation and Tiger Airways’ complete integration, there are plans to continue to expand China Airlines’ routes. From the observation of current trends, the number of Chinese travellers in Singapore in 2017 is expected to exceed 3 million people.

Chinese Tourists to Malaysia 

Currently, Malaysia has also only released numbers from January-May 2017, and the number of Chinese tourists in Malaysia reached 905,300, an increase of 7.79%. From the current market situation, the number of Chinese passengers travelling to Malaysia has been restored to the number pre-“Malaysia Airlines” incident.

Benefitting from China and ASEAN’s open sky policy and low-cost aviation development, the aviation market between China and ASEAN countries continue to grow. There is also a trend of development towards small countries (eg. Brunei) and small cities (eg. Hat Yai, Cambodia).

Since the market size is expanded, competition is heightened, and even small charter companies tried to adopt the China aviation route. In the open market system, however, continued efforts are still required to promote the healthy development of the aviation market and to have orderly competition.

Major cruise Chinese travelers are the middle-aged and women. Summer and National Day vacations are peak periods for cruise tourism; the top cruise tourism origins are Shanghai and Beijing.

After recent years of market development, Chinese cruise travel market is showing astronomical growth, making China the largest cruise travel market in Asia.

Major customers for cruise travel are the middle-aged and women. Family trips are in strong demand.

With comfortable settings, more activities for entertainment and relaxation and no travel fatigue, outbound travel by cruise is certainly an obvious choice for the middle-aged who have the luxury of time to see the world.

The largest customer segment of cruise tourism in China are those between 30 and 59 years old, accounting for 49% of all cruise travelers, followed by the 60-and-above (27%). In these two age groups, those who are between 35-40 years old and above 65 years old are major consumers for cruise travel.

In terms of gender, there are more female cruise travelers than males in China. In the age group of 30-59 years old, for example, female travelers constitute 31% while males only make up 18%.

Categorizing by traveling companions, family trips claim the lion’s share at 41% of all cruise travel orders. This is due to the recent rise of traveling with children, which sees more and more families consider cruise travel an option for family retreat. Group travel by the silver-haired is also an important customer group, which accounts for 20% of total orders.

Family trips are concentrated during summer and National Day vacations. Entertainment and food are top factors.

Considering children have longer vacation during summer and national day holidays, families often schedule their cruise trips to these two periods. August is when most trips take place during the summer vacation.

Group or non-group travels by the silver-haired have more leeway to plan when to board on their cruises and they usually avoid the summer peak. Group travel by young people and couples’ trips tend to happen during National Day vacation. Traveling with BFFs can take place all year round and is impulsive.

Family travelers prefer sea-view suites and suites with balcony as parents want to provide the highest level of comfort for their children. Not surprisingly, family travelers have higher spending per person than other types of travelers.

Many travelers have grown out of the mindset that cruise travel is about getting the traveler to a destination. Instead, they pay more attention to the activities onboard, including performances as well as food. They are willing to “travel on the cruise itself”. Many cruise travel providers begin to accentuate Chinese elements to cater to Chinese appetites.

As for off-board shopping, Chinese cruise travelers spend the largest amount of cosmetics – as high as 64% of total spending on goods. The second largest spending is on jewelry and watches, which accounts for another 13%.

One month advanced booking is the most popular; more than 80% of customers travel for 4 to 6 days.

Tuniu’s data shows that 34% of customers booked cruise trips by 16 to 30 days in advance last year. Thanks to easier visa applications, 24% of customers chose to book 8 to 15 days in advance.

11% of short-journey cruise customers made last minute decision and booked their cruise less than a week before departure. 19% of customers booked 31 to 60 days well in advance for ample preparation. For ocean cruise travelers, depending on the travel distance and process time for visa application, they prefer to book 61 to 90 days (8%) or more than 90 days in advance (4%).

In 2016, 59% of consumers went for 5-days-4-nights cruise lines, and 22% for 6-days-5-nights lines. At present, China’s cruise travel mostly comprises of offshore short-range trips to Japan.

Trips to Japan and Southeast Asia are mostly consumers by family travelers. Cruises to Middle East, Europe, Americas and the Poles are mostly silver-hair group travelers as well as couples. Among these lines, the major client group for cruise lines that are priced at above 40,000 yuan is those aged between 50 to 65 years old. This indirectly points out that silver-haired customers have both the money and the time to fully exploit the joys of cruise travel.

Most cruise travelers are from Beijing and Shanghai. First choice cruise is Quantum of the Seas.

According to China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association, Chinese outbound cruise travelers totaled 2.1226 million in 2016, the first time in history exceeding 2 million with an increase of 91% from last year.

The top 10 cities by the number of customers traveling by cruises to Japan are Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Suzhou, Wuxi, Ningbo, and Chengdu. As for ocean route cruises, top ten origins are Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Wuhan, Fuzhou, and Tianjin. Shanghai and Beijing travelers are both fervent supporters for short journey and long journey cruises.

Tour-guided cruise customers like to come back for cruises

In 2016, for customers with cruise tour experience, repurchase rate is more than 60%, indicating cruise trips have strong user engagement.

In addition, as the number of repurchase increases, time to order becomes significantly shortened. Those who became cruise travel customers from guided tours take about a year to order while those who have traveled on cruises before take about half as much time.

The growth of high-end cruises travel accelerates; “Cruise+” and destinations will diversify.

High-end cruise travel will grow even faster in China. Chinese cruise travel industry is booming, attracting several international cruise companies to line out strategies targeting the Chinese market in 2017.

In January 2017, Silverseas Cruises’s Silver Shadow has set course for its virgin trip from its home port in Taiziwan, Sekou, Shenzhen. Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises have announced their premium cruises tailored to the Chinese market – Norwegian Joy and Majestic Princess respectively. International players are one after the other investing more and more in the Chinese market, offering a greater range of choices for Chinese consumers.

“Cruise+” offerings are becoming more diversified. So far, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and a couple of other cities have opened up home ports routes for cruises.

For destinations relatively far from home ports, Tuniu offered a couple of options to tackle feeder transport problem, such as “Cruise + Shuttle”, “Cruise + High-Speed Rail”, “Cruise + Airlines”. This allows inclusion of more cities to be accessible to cruise travel and customers do like the idea. In 2017, Tuniu will further elevate the diversity of its “Cruise+” products and make cruise travel more suited to customers’ travel demand.

There will be greater diversity in terms of cruise travel destinations as well. The market has long been saturated with homogenous Japanese locations. As Southern China cruise market matures, Southeast Asia destinations will gain traction.

Taking a cruise trip to Singapore, Vietnam or Thailand will be a very different and refreshing holiday option for Chinese travelers. As traveling to North and South Poles begin to heat up, more travelers are spending their vacation with polar bears, seals, seafowls and penguins.

The number of Chinese cruise travelers has grown by 10 times in the past five years to over 2 million in 2016 from 200,000 five years ago according to CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association).

China is now the world’s eighth-largest cruise market; the number of Chinese cruise travelers is expected to reach 4.5 million by 2020. Compared to 11 million annual cruise passengers in the United States, the Chinese market is clearly still in the development stage.

Including the Royal Caribbean and Carnival, the world’s leading cruise companies have taken allocated a large number of luxury cruise ships to the Chinese seaside, expecting to seize the shares from this fast-growing market.

The number of China’s total outbound tourists has increased from 47.66 million in 2009 to 120 million in 2015; the growth rate was 12.1%. Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea the most popular destinations for Chinese travelers in 2016.

China millennials, also known as Generation Y or post-80s and post-90s by Chinese marketers, account for 25% of the total population and 73% of outbound tourists in China according to GfK.

In 2015, China’s outbound tourists spent 215 billion dollars in total, with a growth rate of 30.5%.

Related: China online travel market overview for Q1 2016

62.8% of China’s outbound online travel users take group trips with travel agents while the others take Free & Easy trips (self-guided tours).

In terms of outbound online group trips with travel agents, the total transaction in 2010 was 2.11 billion yuan (USD 314.15 million); and, it increased to 23.16 billion yuan (USD 3.46 billion) in 2015.

The total transaction of outbound free & easy trips in 2011 reached 450 million yuan (USD 67.32 million); and, it increased to 13.72 billion yuan (USD 2.05 billion) in 2015.

56.9% of China’s online travel users had an outbound travel in the past year; and, 30.8% of the outbound travel users chose free & easy trips while 23.3% users chose group trips with travel agents.

30.8% of China’s outbound online travel users prefer free & easy trips.

80.8% outbound online travel users obtain information through search engines, social networks (73.3%) and offline channels (66.2%).

67.1% outbound online travel users listed sightseeing as a reason for outbound travel, followed by relaxing (54.8%), learning something (37.4%), and shopping (36.6%).

Japan and South Korea are the most popular outbound destinations for Chinese online travel users, accounting for 32%.

About 84% outbound online travel users travel overseas more than once; 41.25% for 2 to 3 times.

60.5% Chinese outbound online travel users consider the fine sceneries an important factor for selecting outbound travel destinations, followed by cost (52%).

52.4% outbound online travel users have a trip on annual leaves; and, 25.2% on golden weeks.

46.7% outbound online travel users prefer trips for 7 to 10 days.

45.6% outbound online travel users are couples or lovers, followed by family members & relatives (21.3%) and friends & classmates (15.2%).

43.8% outbound online travel users prefer booking standard package.

In terms of booking devices, 54.2% outbound online travel users prefer using desktop computers.

37.2% outbound online travel users prefer using Alipay for payment, followed by ATM card (29%) and online banking (17.3%).

On desktops, 64.3% outbound online travel users used WeChat for payment while there are 70.4% users use online banking on mobile.

38% of China’s outbound online travel users spend an average of 5,001 to 10,000 yuan in their trips; 35.4% spend 10,001 to 20,000 yuan.

The top spending category is shopping (41%), followed by transportation (23.6%).

91.7% users use financial products; of which, 28.3% users prefer the third party financial products; and, 45.9% users prefer insurance.

To purchase in outbound trips, 71.2% users prefer referring to travel guides, followed by friends’ recommendations (53.6%) and channels of local travel websites (52.1%).

The most frequently used services in outbound travels are map navigation (52.9%), mobile Wi-Fi (48.3%), and tax refund (45.9%).

62.9% outbound online travel users prefer sharing information on social networking sites.

Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea are the most potential destinations for Chinese outbound online travel users to travel in 2016.

Fine sceneries, safety, and cost are top 3 factors that influence both the actual and the potential outbound travel users in choosing travel destinations.

38.9% potential outbound travel users prefer booking on the desktop; and, 33.1% prefer booking on mobile.

The top 3 factors for choosing travel products by potential outbound travel users are good value for money (73%), product variety (60.9%), and high popularity of websites (59.3%).

27% potential outbound online travel users prefer Free & Easy trips; 19.3% prefer Free & Easy trips + Tour guides.

37.7% potential outbound travel users prefer booking on the same websites while 35.1% prefer using different websites.

China outbound travel users are young (56.3% users are between 25 to 35 y-o), high intelligent (over 60% of them have a university degree and 31% are middle managements), high income (21.7% users earn 10,000 yuan, USD 1498, monthly); and, the male (66.6%) are more than the female (33.4%).

In terms of regions, 15.6% outbound online travel users come from Guangdong, followed by Shanghai (13.5%), and Beijing (12.8%).

The number of outbound Chinese tourists surged during the Chinese New Year holidays in 2016 and many countries and regions have been ready to meet the Chinese tourist shopping tide. Japan, Thailand, and Australia were popular outbound destinations.

Chinese outbound tourists to Japan was predicted to reach a record high of 6 million person-trips during CNY in 2016 according to Japan Tourism Organization. Japan was the second popular outbound destination of Chinese tourists during CNY. The most popular destination was Thailand.

The Japanese retail industry faced a large number of shopping Chinese during CNY in 2016. Famous Japan travel attractions were crowded with Chinese tourists. Hotel accommodation fees increased and China to Japan airplane tickets also increased.

Japan’s official statistics showed that Japan’s tourism revenue turned to profitability in 2015 for the first time in 53 years. However, the increase of Chinese tourists visiting Japan has slowed since the second half of 2015.

Australia was also popular among Chinese tourists. China had more than 10 million people applying for a visa to Australia in January 2016, which has set a new monthly record high. Although Chinese tourists were still enthusiastic in shopping, they were more rational towards goods.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015

The number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad increased 19.5% YoY to 120 million in 2015 and the number was 13 times higher than that of 1998 according to China National Tourism Administration. Data of Feng Li & Fung Group Research Center showed that consumption of Chinese tourists totaled US$229 billion in 2015.

The number of Chinese visitors to Singapore increased by 20% to 2.07 million person-trips in 2015 and the number is expected to increase to 2.35 million this year. The growth rate will slow down according to HSBC.

In contrast, Chinese tourists visiting Japan and Thailand are expected to increase by 46.2% and 41.7% respectively in 2016 which will maintain a strong growth rate in visitor arrivals.

Singapore was not a good desirable place for Chinese tourist doing shopping compared with Japan and Korea. According to a research covering 300,000 Chinese social media users by HSBC, the United States (46%) was the most desirable tourism locations for Chinese people, followed by Japan (26%) and Hong Kong (21%). Only 5% of respondents chose Singapore.

Chinese tourists were more likely to buy luxury products, cosmetics, clothing and watches in those countries according to 6Estates. And they preferred to buy local brands, such as Charles & Keith in Singapore, Uniqlo in Japan, Sasa in Hong Kong, and Coach in the US.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015

China had 109 million outbound tourists who spent a total amount of US$229 billion on shopping in 2015 according to GFK. China was the largest outbound country in the world.

GFK’s survey showed that more than half of Chinese travelers were between 15 and 29 years old, 37% between 30 and 44 years old, and about a tenth between 45 and 59 years old.

The top five most popular travel destinations of Chinese travelers have been South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan since the beginning of 2016. Europe was also a popular outbound destination of Chinese tourists. Chinese travelers visiting Thailand, South Korea and Japan in November 2015 grew by an increase of 263%, 112% and 157% respectively.

Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong were the most favored destinations among the post-85s and post-90s in China in 2015. Since 2014, a large number of Chinese tourists began to pay more attention to the cultural landscape and historical heritage of tourism destinations instead of convenient transportation and low travel cost. Travel for shopping was a new trend among Chinese outbound travelers.

Two-thirds of China post-85s and post-90s were high-income groups according to GFK and they will be expected to spend more on travel in the future. Understanding likes and dislikes of China’s travelers especially the post-85s and post-90s were essential for attracting these travelers.

Also read: China Travel Insights for Chinese New Year 2016

A total number of 220 million Chinese residents will travel overseas with a total spend of $450 billion in 2025 , up from 120 million residents spending $250 billion in 2015 according to Goldman Sachs’ report.

120 million Chinese tourists will travel overseas in 2015, with 70 million traveling to Hong Kong/Macau, around 5 million to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, 12 million to ASEAN, and 2 million to the US; and, two thirds of current outbound travelers are millennials (15-35 years old), estimated by Goldman Sachs.

70 million Chinese travelers who visited Hong Kong and Macau in 2015, where it doesn’t require a passport but a permit to enter.

Only 4% people in China currently holds a passport and this figure are expected to reach 12% within 10 years. The number of travel-ready millennials who will graduate from Chinese universities in the next 10
will reach 74 million.

The number of Chinese residents who will visit Japan will reach 16 million in 2025, up from 5 million in 2015. The average cost of a package tour to Japan is $2,000, including money spent on shopping ($1,000). Korea, Australia and Europe are also expected to become tourist hot spots.

Also read: China Travel Market Overview for Q4 2015

As of 31 December 2015, the number of travel agencies in China reached 27,621 according to China National Tourism Administration.

The top ten inbound traveler regions by the total number of person trips are Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macau, the U.S., Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Russia.

China travel agencies organized a total number of 42.18 million person trips and received 45.29 million person trips in Q4 2015, an increase of 14.68% and 14.59% YoY.

Jiangsu (17%), Shanghai (9%), and Zhejiang (9%) are the top 3 travel destinations in China in Q4 2015.

Southeast Asia countries are among China’s most popular outbound tourism destinations, accounting for 27% of total person-trips in Q4 2015.

Also read: China Travel Insights for Chinese New Year 2016

The total number of 19.74 million foreign tourists visited Japan with a total consumption of 3.47 trillion yen (US$0.03 trillion) in 2015 according to Japan Tourism Organization. China was the largest inbound travel market of Japan in 2015.

Among foreign tourists consumption in Japan, Chinese tourists accounted for about 40% with 1.41 trillion yen (US$12.25 million) in 2015. Average per consumption of Chinese tourists reached 283,800 yen far higher than the average consumption in Japan. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Japan was predicted to reach 5 million in 2015 according to Japan Tourism Organization.

Japan introduced a number of preferential policies in order to attract more people to travel to Japan in 2015. The number of duty-free shops increased including food product duty-free shops. Japanese visa policy towards Asian countries was also relaxed.

Data has become essential for Japan to understand their tourists. Home appliance stores, duty-free shops have already started their own large collection and analysis of data in order to better meet the needs of tourists. Japan Tourism Organization has collected data of shopping travelers to boost inbound consumption.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015

China has ushered in an unprecedented wave of overseas travel that outbound tourists exceeded 100 million passengers last year. Chinese tourists to Japan in the year 2015 will exceed 5 million passengers, ranking first in the world.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan reached 13.41 million passengers representing an increase of 3 million or more compared to the previous year in 2014, and Chinese tourists increased from 1.31 million passengers in 2013 to 2.41 million passengers.

Japan has become one of the most popular travel destinations and a shopping paradise for Chinese tourists in recent years. 27.7% Chinese tourists visit Japan for shopping according to a research of Japan National Tourism Organization. Japanese inbound tourism income in 2014 reached about 2 trillion yen (US$16.24 billion) and over 25% of 558.3 billion yen (US$4.53 billion) from Chinese tourists. Per capita consumption of Chinese tourists was about 230,000 yen (US$1,807.06).

Many Chinese have travelled to Japan for more than once with a ratio of 25.9%. These tourists prefer traveling on a new itinerary at the second visit and most of them are the wealthy from metropolitan cities such as Bejing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The total number of China’s tourists is estimated to exceed 4.1 billion person trips in 2015, and reach a total revenue of 3840 trillion yuan (US$617.40 billion), according to China Tourism Academy.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015

China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market and consumption market. Basing on the report initiated by China and surveyed by the World Urban Tourism Federation (WTCF), a total of 109 million Chinese person-trips visited foreign countries in 2014, among which the ratio of women was higher than men by 17 percentage points. The post-80s favored overseas tourism most, accounting for nearly 45%.

China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market and consumption market. In 2014, the number of Chinese outbound tourists reached 109 million person-trips, a YoY increase of 11% accounting for 9.58% of the total international tourists. Total Chinese outbound tourism consumption reached US$165 billion, an increase of 28% accounting for 11% of the total international tourism revenues.

Women tourists accounted for 58.5% of all Chinese outbound tourists, higher than men. The largest age group was the post-80s whose ratio was as high as 44.89%; the post-70s ranked second, accounting for 25.72%; and followed by the post-90s (11.39%), post-60s (9.97%) and post-50s (8.04%).

The post-80s and post-70s became the main groups of Chinese outbound tourists, accounting for more than 70%, which is mainly due to their higher education background and the majority got married traveling with minor children and elder parents.

Over the past year, Chinese short-distance tourists were mainly the post-80s and post-90s, accounting for more than 60% of the total; most of them were single or married with no children or children under the age of 10; their average household monthly income was 18,233 yuan (US$2,858.82) and the individual average income is 9,531 yuan (US$1,495.22), lower than the overall level.

Their favorite short-distance tour destinations are all located in East Asia and Southeast Asia, including five cities in Japan, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Nara; three cities in South Korea, Seoul, Jeju, Inchon; and followed by Bangkok and Singapore.

Improving visa policies, including lowering the threshold, simplifying procedures and shortening the processing time, are expected by most Chinese outbound tourists. And, shopping has beocme a routine for overseas tourists.

Also read: Tmall Will Launch the Global Duty-free Shop Project in China

With the rising living status, more and more Chinese would like to spend their vacation in foreign countries. In 2014, over 100 million Chinese travelled abroad. Japan, South Korea, the United States and some European countries are popular tourism destinations. According to data from Japan National Tourism Organization, China became the largest country of Japan’s inbound tourism market.

In H1 2015, the number of tourists from mainland China to Japan reached a record of 2.179 million. Meanwhile, in H1 2015, the number of Chinese visitors to Japan bypassed the number of Japanese tourists to China for the first time, and became the largest source of Japan inbound tourism market. China has become the largest outbound tourism market for 3 consecutive years since 2012. The increase of Chinese tourists has brought great opportunities for Japan.

South Korea, Japan and China are all located in North Asia, and enjoyed a more convenient transportation. Stimulation policy made by Japanese government also had a positive effect on the increase of Chinese tourists to Japan; in addition, the depreciation of Japanese yen also helped.

Also read: Chinese Spending Accounted for 40% of Total Foreigners’ in Japan in Q1 2015

The Hurun Report recently published The Chinese Luxury Traveler 2015, for the fourth consecutive year. The report revealed the features of Chinese traveling enthusiasts, including their decision-making process, social media habit, travel trend, sales and gifting preference.

Here are top ten highlights from The Chinese Luxury Traveler 2015.

1. More foreign travels – average traveling expense for past year

More than 200,000 Chinese traveling enthusiasts traveled to different countries for four times and 33 days on average. For the data 33 days, leisure travels are increased by 10% to 20 days, business 13 days. Last year, the total population of off-boarder travelers were 116 million, up by 17.8%, on basis of China Tourism Academy.

2. Stronger presentation of traveling agencies – DIY travelers fewer than 30%

Traveling agencies processed approximately a half of total hotel bookings. China’s Top 12 Agencies for Mainland-based Luxurious Foreign Travels include 8 Continents, Wild China*, Diadema, HH Travel, My Tour, Magic Travel*, Ctrip, Sinbad Travel*, Zanadu, CITS, CTS and CYTS.

American Express performed best in areas of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Top 5 Agencies for Hong Kong-based Luxurious Foreign Travels include Wincastle Travel, Cathy Pacific Travel, American Express, Swire Travel and Westminster Travel.

Top 5 Agencies for Macaw-based Luxurious Foreign Travels are Macaw CYTS, Macaw CITS, Macaw CTS, Hong Thai Travel and American Express.

Top 5 Agencies for Taiwan-based Luxurious Foreign Travels are Asuka Travel, Royal Jetway Express, American Express, ITIS and Lion Travel.

Mr. Hu Run said, “the list is formed on basis of surveys on over 70 managers of luxury hotels globally, which performed by ILTM, GHC Asia famed for public relations in luxury travels in Asia, and Hurun. It’s the first time we created the lists of the most popular agencies in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan areas. “

3. Destinations

South Pole traveling is increasingly popular. According to the survey, the most impressive and frequently visited destination among all is South Pole. The main reason appeals to 49% travel enthusiasts is spectacular natural views, seconded by rare animals and vegetation, 19%, and travel surprise, 17%. Additionally, cruise tour is a hit last year. Maldives is particularly attractive to Chinese rich people, and Australia, the top destination for all the riches, second by France, without any surprise.

Great Britain and Italy are the two countries increasingly attracted to travelers, in sharp contrast with German and Swiss that see a drop in interested travelers. Moreover, exotic destinations like Hawaii and Dubai enjoy the popularity among rich people in recent two years, while Sanya and Tibet are of great appeal among all China attractions. For those traveling enthusiasts, they made traveling decisions on foreseeable creative experience. Furthermore, medical tour is a hot topic nowadays. 60% Chinese rich people have taken medical tours before.

Pros and Cons of Top 5 Destinations. Travelers usually visited United States of America for business and family purposes, and gave a low rating to food. Japan is the primary choice for shopping and earns the highest food rating. Both France and Great Britain attract a great number of travelers for shopping and business, while Great Britain rated higher than France in food. For Australia, it is the absolute right choice for leisure and holidays, in the meanwhile travelers rarely visited the country for business, food, family or shopping.

Also read: Understanding Chinese Luxury Travelers

The total spending of foreigners visiting Japan in Q1 2015 reached 706.6 billion yen, an increase of 64.4% YoY according to Japan’s “Chinese Herald”. Chinese travelers’ total spending accounted almost 40% of total.

Chinese visitors spent 277.5 billion yen in Q1 2015, 39.3% of the total, representing an expansion of 2.3 times, becoming Japan’s domestic consumption detonating force.

The above statistics, including accommodation, catering, travel expenses, entertainment expenses, shopping and other expenses. Several factors contribute to foreigners’ increasing expenditure including:

• the yen continued to depreciate,
• expansion of the range of duty-free goods since October 2014
• relaxing visa application conditions for Chinese

Total number of Chinese visiting Japan reached 923,500 in Q1 2015, an increase of 93.2% YoY; Chinese people traveling in Japan has a per capita consumption of 300,434 yen, compared with 248,000 yen a year earlier, an increase of 20.9%. Chinese total spending in Japan reached 277.5 billion yen, an increase of 39.3%.

On average, a Chinese tourist spent 52,868 yen on accommodations, 43,501 yen on food, 20,256 yen on transportation, 5,184 yen on entertainment expenses, 176,975 yen for shopping (about 60% of total personal expenditure).

According to China Confidential, a research institute of Financial Times, the total expenditure of China outbound travelers reached RMB140 billion (US$498 billion) in 2014. In other words, today’s Chinese outbound tourists’ spending is more than the total household consumption expenditure in some countries, such as Indonesia ($436 billion) and Turkey ($442 billion).

Read more: Rise of the China Outbound Tourism

According to data from China Tourism Academy, total revenue generated from China inbound tourism market reached $51.646 billion with an increase of 3.27% year on year, ranking 4th in the world, following America, France and Spain in 2013.

In 2013, top 10 countries by foreign travelers were South Korea, Japan, Russia, America, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore and Australia.

Also read: Chinese New Year Traveler Insights 2015

1. Unlike China, American and Japanese consumers mainly use credit cards for payment
2. Compared with the USA and Japan, Chinese consumers are far keener to e-commerce transactions
3. Hot categories of these three countries include books, clothes and ornaments
4. Transnational e-commerce has great potencial in the long run

The same report predicts that China online retail sales will triple to more than $360 billion.