Nearly 80% of the respondent hope to travel during Chinese New Year holiday in 2015 as shown in Ctrip Spring Festival Travel Intention Report, much higher than the previous year.
Due to the over-crowdedness in China, over 50% hope to travel overseas. As for the choice of booking channel, more than 80% prefer to comparatively select travel products on travel websites, and about 40% turn to mobile phone for reservation, which indicates “mobile” manner of online booking on Spring Festival holidays.
Thanks to several major favorable factors, including simplified requirements for outbound tourism, easier availability of domestic high-speed train and self-driving, Internet technology innovation of travel and severe price competition, Chinese willingness to travel is highly likely to further increase in 2015.
Golden Week of 2015 Spring Festival holidays will begin in about two weeks starting on Chinese New Year Eve 18 February 2015. Ctrip survey has also shown that 80% of Internet users would like to travel, among whom 17% have already made travel plans, 65% remain undecided, and 18% plan not to travel on the holiday.
Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the most significant annual festival for Chinese, and thus nearly 90% of those preferring travel tend to travel together with their family, and only 5% prefer traveling alone.
Since family reunion and friend parties are also indispensable, 36% of those preferring travel tend to begin their travel from the 3rd or 4th day, 23% like to do it before the Spring Festival, 20% would like to do it on the 1st or 2nd day. In terms of the days of travel, most will spend 3-6 days to relax and travel, 25% will spend more than 6 days.
In terms of travel destination, about 40% tend to travel abroad, 37% prefer domestic tourism, and the remaining 23% have not made final decision. More than 50% dislike domestic travel due to the usual crowdedness at scenic spots on holidays. The survey has also displayed that males prefer domestic tourism, while females are more inclined to overseas travel.
As for the domestic destination for Spring Festival holidays, Sanya, Yunnan, Xiamen, Northeast China, Jiuzhaigou, Guilin, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Zhangjiajie and Shanghai are Chinese netizens’ top ten favorites.
As for the overseas destination for Spring Festival holidays, Thailand, Bali Island, Maldives, Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Macao, Singapore, New Zealand and Republic of Korea are the netizens’ top ten favorites.
Of all factors, the respondents still mainly consider price, travel line and service. 71% pay most attention to price, 68% mostly concern travel line and 49% take service quality as priority. In addition, several other factors are also concerned, such as travel safety and weather.
In the aspect of consumption level, the Chinese are richer and richer, and their willingness of consumption on Spring Festival holidays is higher than before. 30% believe that 3001-5000 yuan is reasonable per capita consumption, and 1/3 will spend more than 5000 yuan per person on tourism.
The tourists’ price sensitiveness declines with the rise of age, mainly because those above 40 years old enjoy stronger consumption capacity and pay more attention to the value of Spring Festival travel, and thus they are willing to invest more into travel.
During the Chinese New Year, the websites where people spent the longest time are search engine, directories, e-commerce and others according to Nielsen.