Southeast Asia received the most Chinese tourists during this year’s National Day holiday according to a recent report by WeChat.
Hong Kong returned as the most popular destination. The most remote location for check-in for Chinese tourists is in Greenland. 6.4 billion red packets were sent via WeChat during the Mid-Autumn Festival this year!
Tourism during 2017’s National Day holiday (referred to as “Golden Week” in China) was driven by families, who accounted for the largest proportion of travelers at 42%. Surveys show that many traveled with their children; such travelers made up 32% of the total and their numbers increased by more than 50% over 2016.
Another large chunk of travelers went in company with their parents (10%). Among families, the majority were what are known as “2+1” families with a single child, but the number of “2+2” families travelling over the holiday also increased by 50%. Beyond families, some other key demographics who travelled in numbers over the holiday were groups of friends (22% of all travelers) and couples (20%); individual travelers made up just 6% of the total.
Some 60% of travelers were women, who are more likely to take time off to take children or parents travelling. They were more likely to book tours, cruises, and local excursions, as well as to travel independently. Those born after 1980 and 1990 are driving an increasingly youthful travel market; travelers between 31 and 45 years old made up 33% of the total, while those between 19 and 30 accounted for 27%.
Finally, Golden Week travel highlighted several trends in the Chinese travel market, most especially a continuing shift from pre-packaged and group tours to independent travel; this year the number of travelers in tours and traveling independently was nearly evenly split (45% vs. 44%), a marked shift from years past, in which the majority of tourists traveled as part of a tour group or package, not on their own.