ETW Staff – Mumbai
China has overtaken Germany and the USA as the world’s biggest spenders on travel, with Chinese travellers spending US$102 billion on international travel in 2012, an increase of over 40% on 2011.
Surveying more than 3,000 Chinese international travelers and more than 1,500 hoteliers around the world, the Hotels.com report found seventy five per cent of hoteliers globally say Chinese travellers now account for up to five per cent of their business and 45 per cent say they have experienced an increase in Chinese guests over last year, with the greatest increases coming in APAC (61 per cent). Hoteliers see China as a positive growth market over the next three years with one in 10 expecting to see an increase of more than 50 per cent and almost half (47 per cent) anticipating an 11-50 per cent rise.
Johan Svanstrom, managing director of Hotels.com Asia Pacific, said, “The 2013 Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM) shows the move to independent travel identified in the CITM last year is now preferred by the majority of Chinese travellers”. In addition, the CITM highlights areas for continued improvement for accommodation providers. The ability to accept Chinese payment methods is seen as the single most important offering from hotels.
Three quarters of Chinese travellers say hoteliers need to improve the provision of translated items. Hoteliers are making positive steps towards catering to an increasingly mobile and savvy Chinese travel market.
“In addition, programmes being implemented by many governments and tourism authorities to attract and facilitate for Chinese travellers are a positive step in the right direction, but the pace of growth in the volume of Chinese travellers appears to be outstripping the pace of change in the hotel industry,” Svanstrom concluded.
