Chinese tourists travelling to various European and Asian capitals during this summer is expected to spend more on dining and sightseeing rather than their known activity of shopping. Thanks to the diminished foreign prices and the gradual popularity of overseas travel.
According to an annual survey by booking site Hotels.com and Ipsos, it has been seen that retailers across the world have come to rely on Chinese tourists but the proportion citing shopping as their main travel motivation plunged to one-third this year from more than two-thirds in 2016. The Chinese travellers are now more focused on looking for experiential travel rather than just being shopping oriented.
As per the analysts, the decline is as a result of the growing number of the Chinese travellers. Also, the fact that average disposable income of travellers has decreased, overseas travel has become more mainstream.
Although there are no official figures of the total number of Chinese people travelling abroad however, Beijing has said that Chinese travellers took as many as 122m overseas trips last year which includes Hong Kong and Macau.
According to Hotels.com, about 82% of the overseas trips are to Asian destinations. The long-haul trips include visitation to Europe and the US which have increased 25% and 12% respectively in the last year.
Higher prices for luxury goods in China once pushed shoppers overseas but companies are “harmonising” their prices globally, and border checks on tourists carrying multiple goods into the country have intensified, boosting domestic spending.
The new trend shows that Chinese travellers are extending their duration of the long haul trips; which explains why the spending on the hotels has risen. For instance, the last year data shows Chinese travellers spend an average of 16 days in the US.
