Tuniu Issues the Chinese Online Outbound Tourism Big Data in 2017

On February 5, Chinese Online Outbound Tourism Big Data in 2017 was publicly issued by tuniu.com. It, based on national tourism economic operation monitoring and early-warning data and Tuniu’s customer booking data, analyzes the outbound tourist consumer behavior characteristics, typical travel destination characteristics, etc. in the full year of 2017: In terms of city of departure, Shanghai still ranked the first among the outbound tourist source regions, and meanwhile the travel intention of consumers in Western China became further stronger; Thailand was still the well-deserved “web celebrity” travel destination, and meanwhile, long-distance outbound travel became more popular among tourists. Under the trend of “going further and further”, the number of tourists to the Antarctic Pole increased 6 times on a year-on-year basis. Besides, there was an obvious trend of fragmented tourism, and local entertainment projects such as diving, trip shoot and delicious food all were quite popular among tourists.

A total of 129 million outbound tourists, exceeding the total population of Japan

In 2017, influenced by continuous per capita income growth, unusually brilliant tourism diplomacy, the “Belt and Road” Initiative, the increase of visa centers and flights etc., China’s outbound tourism market remained hot with total outbound tourists exceeding the total population of Japan. According to the data published at 2018 National Tourism Work Conference, it’s estimated that there were 129 million outbound tourists in 2017 (2016: 122 million), a year-on-year increase of 5.7%. China has been the world’s largest outbound tourist source country for consecutive years.

With the stable increase of outbound tourists, China has been the first tourist source country for Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Russia, Cambodia, Maldives, etc., and in 2017, has become the second tourist source country for New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Philippines, etc.

Internet plays an important role in promoting the outbound tourism in our country, while online tourism websites and mobile phone clients provide important channels for Chinese tourists to inquire and book tourism products. As of Q3 2017, Tuniu had ranked the first in online leisure tourism market for consecutive quarters and also been the No. 1 in online outbound tourism market. At the same time, Tuniu's mobile orders accounted for 90% of its total online orders as of Q3 2017. To provide mobile customers with better travel experience, Tuniu tourism App has continuously made innovations based on original “Jie Ban (travelling with others)”, “You Ji (travel notes)”, “Wan Fa (travel methods)”, “Lv Tu (tourist navigation map)” and other functions and mobile online customer services. For example, it has launched an online “live-broadcasting” platform, which provides more intuitive and interactive new experience for users through combining “live web cast + game play interpretation + audience interaction”.

A vital force for outbound tourism consumption—the post-90s generation; the largely improved travel intention of consumers in Western China

As the number of outbound tourists increases year after year, what changes do the main forces of outbound tourism have? In terms of age, when the post-00s generation becomes 18 years old, the post-90s generation full of curiosity and exploration desire towards the world has become the main force for outbound tourism consumption. According to the monitoring data of tuniu.com, in 2017, the post-90s outbound tourists accounted for 30% of the total outbound tourists, a year-on-year increase of 4 percent points. Of course, the post-80s generation was still the main force of outbound tourism and accounted for 38% of the total. In addition, the seniors with plenty of time and money are also a consumer group that cannot be ignored in the outbound tourism market.

In terms of tourist gender, among all outbound tourists who booked tourism products through Tuniu in 2017, female tourists (65%) were more 30% than male tourists (35%).

Generally speaking, in 2017, the consumers in 10 cities (i.e. Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Xi’an) had the highest enthusiasm for outbound tourism, while the number of outbound tourists in Xuzhou, Nantong, Shantou, Haikou, Jiaxing, Changzhou, Hefei, Nanchang, Zhengzhou, Lanzhou and other cities increased rapidly. With the increase of international flights and visa centers and the coverage of combined transport services over expanded urban areas, the consumers in the third-tier and fourth-tier cities and the cities in Central-Western China burst forth into a strong potential of becoming outbound tourist consumers.

Meanwhile, according to the monitoring data of tuniu.com, the tourists in the following 10 cities had the highest per capita outbound tourism expenses in 2017: Beijing, Shanghai, Wenzhou, Chongqing, Kunming, Nanjing, Xi’an, Shenyang, Harbin and Qingdao. Their expenses paid for buying outbound package tour and independent travel products also ranked top in our country. Wherein, Beijing tourists ranked the first by virtue of per capita outbound tourism expense of RMB8,200.

According to the information previously published by the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China, the residents in Mainland China have held a total of 129 million effective ordinary passports for private affairs. That is, almost 1 out of every 10 Chinese people holds a passport for private affairs. With gradual increase of the number and proportion of passport holders in China, more people will travel abroad, the penetration rate will continue decreasing, and outbound tourism will become a “normal” choice for going on holiday. Tuniu’s online channels and expanding offline proprietary outlets can provide customers with “online + offline” new high-quality tourism retail services so that customers will obtain “online professional + offline exclusive” brand-new experience.

A year-on-year increase of 6 times in the number of tourists to polar regions; the popular characteristic theme destinations

According to the monitoring data of tuniu.com, the most popular destination countries among Chinese tourists in 2017 were Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Maldives, Vietnam, Singapore, the U.S., France, Russia and Malaysia. From the annual ranking list, the short-distance destination countries in Southeast Asia have been the choices of many outbound tourists due to their “similar” geographical locations, cultures and living habits to China and thus their familiarity to domestic tourists as well as the convenient transportation.

From the proportion of tourists in short-distance and long-distance outbound travel, the popularity of long-distance travel destinations among tourists has been increasing year after year. The proportion of long-distance outbound tourists to the total outbound tourists increased from 16% in 2016 to 20% in 2017. Based on their increased travel frequency and increasingly rich travel experience, Chinese tourists are not satisfied with only traveling to surrounding countries or regions any more, and instead go further and further. Among the long-distance outbound travel destination countries, the U.S. was still most favored by Chinese tourists, followed by 9 destination countries—France, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Mauritius, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and Egypt.

Furthermore, tourists are no longer unfamiliar with trips to polar regions. In 2017, the number of tourists booking tourism products for their trips to south and north poles increased 6 times on a year-on-year basis and these tourists were mainly from Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Tianjin, Jinan, Hohhot, Wenzhou, Guangzhou, Chongqing, etc.

Under the trend of tourism consumption upgrading, the tailor-made travel and theme travel markets developed rapidly in 2017, which implies the tourists’ great demands for all kinds of tourism products. The 10 most popular tailor-made outbound travel destination countries were respectively Thailand, Japan, Europe, Indonesia, Maldives, Singapore, the U.S., Australia, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Besides, the 10 best outbound travel destination islands in 2017 were respectively Phuket, Bali, Maldives, Saipan, Sabah, Mauritius, Koh Samui, Okinawa, Sri Lanka, and Fiji. By virtue of many family travel resources, Thailand, Japan, Maldives, the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, France, Malaysia, Australia, etc. all became the most popular family outbound travel destinations in 2017. In the context of the increasingly popular outbound self-driving tour, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Laos, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Canada, Kenya, and Thailand were the 10 most popular outbound self-driving travel destinations among Chinese tourists in 2017.

Only for “play better”, semi-self-help travel and local entertainment projects favored by tourists

According to the monitoring data of tuniu.com, the number of tourists choosing outbound independent travel in 2017 steadily increased on a year-on-year basis, which is closely related to the post-90s new tourism market force and the tourism consumption upgrading trend. The tourists more and more hope to explore new things by experiencing local people’s food and amusement.

In order to provide more profound destination experience for tourists in outbound package tours, Tuniu has innovatively launched semi-self-help travel products. In 2017, the tourists to Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. through Tuniu preferred the semi-self-help travel form, which implies that Chinese tourists are increasing their requirements for flex time.

In the meantime, unlike a large amount of shopping expenses incurred in free time during the tours in previous years, the tourists became more and more enthusiastic about spending money on entertainment and experience themes in 2017, which is mainly reflected in that diving, trip shoot, delicious food and other local entertainment projects are favored by more and more tourists. Especially, in outbound travel destinations such as Thailand, Japan and Vietnam, these types of local food and entertainment projects are particularly popular.

The trend of 2018: continuous excellent performance in outbound tourism market

I. The increasingly heating-up outbound tourism market facilitated by various “tourism year” events

On December 4, 2017, the official logo of “China-Canada Tourism Year 2018” was unveiled in Beijing. Following closely was the opening ceremony for “China-EU Tourism Year 2018” held in Venice, Italy on January 19, 2018. Besides, wonderful activities were also carried out, such as “China-Belarus Tourism Year”, “China-Turkey Tourism Year”, “China-Laos Tourism Year” and “Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018”. Driven by these “tourism year” events, consumers’ enthusiasm for travel to the above destinations will continuously increase, or there will be a group of “hot cake” destinations.

II. Increase of visa centers and direct flights for convenience of outbound tourism

On January 3, new visa application centers of Poland were opened in Changsha, Jinan, Shenyang, Xi’an, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Kunming, etc. So far, Poland has established 14 visa centers in China; Canada has opened 12 visa centers throughout China and also improved visa processing efficiency and established “Quick Access to Canadian Visa Program” to reduce the visa processing time. Brazil has also established 5 visa centers in China and plans to open 10 additional visa centers in China in 2018.

In addition to the increase of visa centers, the increase of international direct flights that reduce tourists’ time cost and provide more comfortable travel experience will also improve consumers’ enthusiasm for outbound tourism. Panama has just established a diplomatic relation with China in June 2017, but has announced that it’s expected to open first direct flight between Beijing and Panama City in March 2018. Meanwhile, the UK government plans to increase their direct passenger flights to China by 50% or from 100 flights every week to 150 flights every week, in order to attract Chinese tourists.

III. The tourists’ outbound travel intention motivated by variety shows, films and TV programs

The role of variety shows, films and TV programs in publicizing travel destinations cannot be ignored. For instance, Koh Chang of Thailand, which was not well-known to Chinese tourists originally, grew significantly famous after the variety show Chinese Restaurant was shot there. It’s expected that in 2018, the outbound tourism will be more influenced by TV programs, films, musical programs, sports events, especially the blog articles and variety show videos of stars and other celebrities on social media. And there will be more “web celebrity” travel destinations.

IV. The increasingly popular travel mode of integrating into the natives’ life style

As more and more tourists choose to integrate the natives’ life style when traveling there, local entertainment products and semi-self-help travel will become more popular and facilitate tourism enterprises to more flexibly utilize local tourism resources to provide consumers with more diversified and more personalized products in 2018.