China is on track to overtake Germany and the US as the world’s largest outbound market within the next few years, according to a new report.
Hotels.com’s Chinese International Travel Monitor revealed the number of Chinese travellers making international trips rose 22% in 2011, compared with the previous year.
Managing director Hotels.com Asia Pacific, Johan Svanstrom, revealed the Chinese had made 70 million international trips in 2011. While the majority of these were to Hong Kong and Macau, there was a growing trend for travelling further afield.
“Implementing strategies to cater specifically to this burgeoning source market is moving from nice-to-have to a competitive necessity,” he said.
The survey of the hotel site’s 5000 partners worldwide found the majority of respondents saw the Chinese boom continuing with one in five expecting to see increases of as much as 40%.
More hotels were adapting to cater to the growing market, while the profile of Chinese guests was also changing, with them becoming younger, more confident and independent.
