Emirates Airline has won over retail-crazy Chinese tourists by simply boosting their baggage allowance.
Martin Rinck, Asia-Pacific president of Hilton Worldwide, says, “They increased their luggage allowance because they recognized when Chinese travelers go abroad, they come home with more than when they left. And just by making that change, they won tremendous market share of the Chinese consumer.”
It is estimated that over 200 million Chinese tourists will travel overseas double the number that did so last year, by 2020.
“It has been one of the biggest dreams for Chinese travelers to go outside and travel overseas. And now the government has lifted restrictions on outbound travel, so for more Chinese, it’s much easier to travel abroad,” says Chen Xu, a Beijing-based researcher at the Chinese Tourism Academy, a government think-tank that studies tourism trends.
Fueled by more visas and more money, increasing numbers of Chinese tourists are now able to fly further and spend more, many booking their own adventures online on travel sites like China’s CTrip.com.
CTrip.com Chief Operating Officer Jane Sun, says, “We just recently sold a very top-end package tour which is $200,000 per person for 88 days around the world.”
Undoubtedly, the interest and buying power of China’s ultra-luxury travelers is immense. Across the board, China’s outbound tourists are the world’s biggest spenders. They spent a record $102 billion on international tourism in 2012. And major booking volume is moving across mobile devices.
“More than 50% of our hotel bookings are on mobile,” says CTrip.com’s Sun.
“China skipped the whole desktop/MacBook/computer thing and went straight to mobile,” added Hilton’s Martin Rinck.
CTA’s Chen Xu, says, “We do this outbound Chinese travelers survey every quarter. And we noticed that last year, for four consecutive seasons, lacking Chinese service and lacking Chinese-language TV programs or menus were the most unsatisfying factors. As a business, you probably have to provide more Chinese-language services.” CTrip.com company data is in line with CTA’s quarterly surveys.
