Tuniu "Splendid Parental Tour" Project in Mid 2017: Second and Third Tier Cities Infiltrated Constantly, and "Spend Senior Years on Travel" Program Highly Welcomed

Under the trend that young people try to express their filial piety by buying travel services for their parents and more elderly people are now hoping to spend their senior days traveling, the “parental travel” trend has turned out to be a gem in the tourism industry in China. In the first half of 2017, Tuniu’s “Splendid Parental Tour” brand kept a bullish trend and has been infiltrating the second and third tier cities of China. In these cities, parents who go traveling amount to up to 70% of the entire number of parental visitors of China.

The parental tourism market growth rate is obviously infiltrating the second and third tier cities of China

The statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics of China shows that there are 230 million who are over 60, which amounted to 16.7% of the Chinese population. Under the condition that the personal income increases year by year, people have more spare time, people’s health conditions are relatively good, and so on, the tourism requirements of the Chinese seniors increase day by day.

In response to this trend, Tuniu released the “Splendid Parental Tour” star product, which is designed to satisfy the different requirements of different groups of the seniors by launching more rich, more personal, and higher quality tourism products, from different angles like “exclusive groups of people, exclusive service, exclusive specialty”, and others. This star product has also improved the travel experience of the seniors, and effectively boosted the healthy development of the parental tourism market, making the senior travelers feel more comfortable and happier on their trips.

Tuniu.com’s monitoring data shows that Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Harbin, Wuhan, Xi’an, and Tianjin turned out to be the top 10 places from where parents set off to travel when participating in the “Splendid Parental Tour” product in the first half of 2017. Visitors from the second and third tier cities of China account for up to 70% of the total number of parental visitors in China. The “Splendid Parental Tour” product is increasingly expanding to the second and third tier cities of China.

If these travelers are divided by gender, males account for 47% and females 53%. Females who love to travel are leading troops among all ages of travelers. According to their itineraries across China, parents travel for three to four days on average, and amounted to 60% of the total travelers’ population. When viewing consumption frequency during the first half of 2017, 70% of travelers in China over 60 take vacations twice per half year.

The whole network sale makes "offsite reservation" possible, destination grouping helps "parents and children enjoy traveling together"

In the trend that more and more children choose to reserve tourism products in another place, the coverage of Tuniu’s regional service web makes Tuniu more competitive in the parental tourism market. As of today, Tuniu has provided reservation service for more than 320 cities from where travelers set off, and this guarantees that Tuniu can provide higher quality service for its users. Online registration and offline service work together. Children register for their parents in a different place, and parents join the group. Children in the reservation area and parents in the setting-off area can contact Tuniu, making information sharing become reality and symmetrical. According to the mainstream reservation children, in the first half of 2017, 70% of those who reserved Tuniu’s “Splendid Parental Tour” product were females, and more of the children expressed their filial piety through the method of “buy it first and then tell their parents” (Note: Chinese parents always want to save more money for their children, and don’t want to spend much money on themselves).

Since their children usually do not work or study in their place of upbringing, parents themselves usually travel together or sometimes choose to travel with their neighbors, their former classmates or even their former colleagues. Investigated from the average travelers’ number, seniors prefer to travel along with their family, community or old friends as a unit, and each time the average number of each of the traveler’s group can amount to more than six. Beneath the flourishing “senior tour group” phenomenon is a somber reality that seniors have an unexpected experience when they travel, and may feel uncomfortable when their children are not with them.

However, through the dynamic package technology, Tuniu can use its destination grouping products to satisfy the “happiness sharing” requirement for seniors and their children not traveling with them. Through the destination grouping method, children from any cities of China can reserve tourism products for their parents by visiting the official website of Tuniu or using Tuniu’s App. And so, children and parents can realize the dream of “set off from different places, and travel in the same group”. Destination grouping not only enriches the varieties of products, but it can also make your group travel more convenient. This will improve the travel experience of the seniors. According to statistics, in the first half of 2017, seniors traveling with their children’s family account for 26% of the total traveling population.

Tuniu.com monitoring statistics show that, in terms of location preference, 50% of the “Splendid Parental Tour” participants choose to travel inside China, 12% choose to go abroad, and 38% around their living area. Among the many cities they choose to travel to in China, Sanya, Beijing, Guilin, Zhangjiajie, Changsha, Xi’an, Lijiang, Dali, Yangzhou, and Jiaxing were the most popular “Splendid Parental Tour” destinations.

As more and more outbound tourist attractions launch Chinese language service and many countries take the measures of visa-free travel and convenient visa services, more seniors begin traveling to other countries more frequently. In the first half of 2017, the “Splendid Parental Tour” participants prefer to visit these foreign nations: Japan, Thailand, the U.S., France, Italy, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, and Vietnam. From this fact, we know that senior travelers mainly choose to travel to countries that have shorter flight time, but they don’t confine themselves to short-distance flights.

"Spend Senior Years on Travel” V.S. "Spend Senior Years at Home",  "Parental Therapy Tour" Highly Welcomed

Today, seniors can not only enjoy the traditional health advisory, having an appointment with a doctor, housekeeping and other “Spend Senior Years at Home” services, via the internet, but they can also enhance their quality of living through the “Spend Senior Years on Travel” method. With the gradual change of their view of consumption and the view of how to spend their senior years, the “Spend Senior Years on Travel” project is becoming a brand new hot spot in the consumption market of seniors.

Tuniu.com’s research data shows that among the tour requirements parental travelers usually care for, these travelers pay much attention to the climate of the destination, and most importantly, whether the environment where they travel in is healthy or not. Travelers who care for the traveling environment account for 45% of the total population of this type. After learning these requirements, currently Tuniu’s “Splendid Parental Tour” project includes the many products of the “Parental Weekend Tour, Parental Holiday Tour”, and its all-series “Parental Therapy Tour” products have all been launched, covering areas like Dali, Yunnan province, and Sanya, Hainan province. Examples include the Kunming + Stone Forest + Dali + Erhai Lake + Lijiang + Lugu Lake Double-Fly 8 Day Parental Tour; the Kunming + Dongchuan + Luoping Jiulong Falls + Pugang black + Yuanyang terraces + built water city + Fuxian Lake Double-Fly 10 Day Parental Tour; the Hainan Sanya - Wuzhizhou - Nanshan 8 Day Tour and other products. Choosing any of the above tours, middle-aged and senior tourists can experience the perfect combination of regimen and leisure at any time.