DALLAS — A Hotels.com survey of more than 3,000 Chinese international travellers and more than 1,500 hoteliers around the world, found that Chinese travellers now account for up to five per cent of hotel business.
“These insights highlight the need for hoteliers to adapt their marketing strategies, with a particular focus on online and social-media channels, to attract Chinese travellers,” said Johan Svanstrom, managing director of Hotels.com Asia-Pacific. “While the Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM) shows hoteliers are making positive steps towards catering to an increasingly mobile and savvy Chinese travel market, it also shows the need for the global hotel industry to adapt facilities and services to more extensively cater to the world’s largest market of travellers.”
The survey shows that Chinese travellers spent approximately $102 billion on international travel in 2012, an increase of more than 40 per cent from 2011. The majority of overseas Chinese travel (96 per cent) has been for leisure purposes, while just over half (52 per cent) have also visited other countries for business or education. The report also identified that nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) of Chinese travellers say they prefer to travel independently and not as part of a group.
The survey indicated a number of key factors hoteliers could improve on to appeal to Chinese tourists, such as accepting Chinese payment methods and providing translated material online or in welcome literature, for example.
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