According to a June report from the China Tourism Academy, Chinese outbound travelers spent more than USD 115 billion outside the mainland, 5% more than in 2016.
Much of that spend was on high-end, customized, memorable trips, confirming their rising purchasing power, evolving tastes and China's consumption upgrade. In the bargain, overseas star hotels and tourist attractions were laughing all the way to the bank. So did domestic airlines and travel agencies, industry insiders said.
This summer, Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, saw bookings for overseas luxury hotels surge nearly 50 % year-on-year, according to its Ctrip Hotel College Data Research Center.
More than 60% of Chinese tourists chose to stay at luxury hotels this summer, and joy-filled vacations characterize a new trend. On average, Chinese travelers would like to stay in the same hotel for three days, which is one day longer than last year, indicating a tendency among consumers to go on in-depth trips, Ctrip said.
The largest number of Chinese travelers applying for tourist visas to visit foreign countries were from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Nanjing in Jiangsu province and Chengdu in Sichuan province. Compared to last summer, the number of visa seekers from those cities grew by 50% to 160%.
Those born in the 1970s and 1980s accounted for the majority. Besides, travelers who were born after 2000 made up nearly 20%, and most of them traveled abroad for the first time with their parents, Ctrip said.
Japan, Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Malaysia, Australia, Canada and France, were among the countries that received the most visa applications from Chinese travelers this summer.
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