Chinese tourists take photos at Cambodia's Ta Prohm Temple in December. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Travel agencies see brisk business with Spring Festival vacationers on the move.
Chinese tourists are expected to make their presence felt in large numbers again during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.
But many travel agencies are already reporting brisk business by way of bookings, with many Chinese planning to spend their unused paid vacation this month. Favorable visa policies in other countries and Christmas shopping packages are adding to the wanderlust, says Ge Lili, an executive at Lvmama, an online travel agency with its headquarters in Shanghai.
A series of the agency's December products has received more than 1 million bookings in half a month.
Thailand's visa-free policy for Chinese tourists, effective since Dec 1, has produced a significant month-on-month increase in the number of Chinese visiting the country.
Those who booked trips that cover well-known shopping sites in Europe via Lvmama have grown by 60 percent as compared with the same period last year, the agency reports.
Winter in northern China has also driven a large number of mainland travelers to warmer destinations. Many also seek fresher air.
Thailand, Singapore and Japan are the most-popular outbound getaways for Chinese tourists for the Christmas-New Year period, while Hainan province's Sanya, Fujian province's Xiamen and Yunnan province's Lijiang top the domestic list.
Chinese tourists have become a significant force in the international tourism market and have taken the lead in average per capita expenditure during travel abroad, followed by tourists from the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and the United States, according to a recent report jointly released by global payment giant Mastercard and one of China's biggest online travel-service providers, Ctrip.
Ctrip saw 690 billion yuan ($100 billion) in transactions from September last year to this September. For about 130 million users of its services, the average annual spending was at more than 5,000 yuan, the travel agency reports.
High-end travelers accounted for 20 percent of outbound tourists, but contributed over 80 percent of the total travel expenditure, according to Mastercard.
Tourism has become a way to understand consumption patterns, especially for holidays such as Spring Festival, and it's one of the best times for Chinese to take their families on trips, says Xiao Yinyuan, an executive in charge of outbound tourism at Ctrip.
Ctrip's December orders for Spring Festival tours so far have increased by 50 percent as compared with the same period last month.
"From the look of things so far, Chinese tourism consumption promises a rosy prospect," Xiao says.
The agency's newly launched private-tour products are being favored by Spring Festival vacationers. The products offer special tour-guide services for two or more people, and allow tourists to enjoy both group-tour services and the flexibility of individual travel, Xiao says.
"One out of every 10 tourists to Japan and Bali has signed up for the private-tour products," Xiao says.
The opening of the Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Guangzhou-Hong Kong high-speed railway have increased the number of travelers to Hong Kong via rail and automobile.
Thai industry officials, including minister of Tourism and Sports Weerasak Kowsurat (ninth from right in the second row), take a group photo at a ceremony to welcome Chinese tourist He Weixin (seventh from right in the second row) from Yunnan province, who becomes the 10 millionth Chinese tourist in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Dec 19. [Photo by Zhang Keren/Xinhua]
Many travelers have opted for the special administrative region's villages and towns off the beaten track to taste authentic yet distinctive Hong Kong elements, Ctrip reports.
Other than Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, France, Italy, Switzerland, Vietnam, the United States, Turkey, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Maldives are the most-popular destinations among Chinese who booked trips through Ctrip for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.
Some short-distance getaways, such as the Philippines and Cambodia, are expected to see a surge in bookings in January, according to the travel agency.
Japan's visa relaxation for Chinese tourists with two visits to the country in past three years is likely to benefit 25 million to 30 million Chinese travelers, according to Xie Zhiwei, Ctrip's visa business manager.
The new visa policy will take effect on Jan 4 and cut previous requirements of financial conditions for Chinese tourists.
Ctrip has launched more than 3,000 routes in Japan for the upcoming Spring Festival. Bookings for Kyoto and Osaka and to see the snowfall in Hokkaido are at over 50 percent of capacity. Packages including Disneyland and Universal Studios in Japan and animal interactions there, such as in Nara, have been snapped up by Chinese families.
Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and even the Antarctic region have claimed the attention of a considerable number of Chinese travelers. The number of Chinese who have booked trips to these destinations have more than doubled for each compared with the same period last year. Inquiries for trips to view the northern lights in Canada during Spring Festival have doubled at Ctrip. The three-day group tour to Yellowknife has sold out.
It's partly thanks to Canada's favorable policy that allows Chinese travelers to use their Alibaba-backed Sesame Credit points in place of their assets certification, Xiao says.
Chinese travelers' outbound experiences have increased, and they are now eyeing faraway continents, such as South America and Antartica.
The Antarctic region received 8,273 Chinese visitors during the 2017-18 season, accounting for 16 percent of the total tourism there, second to the United States, the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators reports. That's nearly 3,000 more than the 2016-17 Antarctic tourism season, and 100 times as much as it was in 2008, when fewer than 100 Chinese visited.
Although the dollar-to-yuan exchange rate is rising, it hasn't affected tourism-product prices, which are basically at last year's levels.
"We've reached long-term cooperation with airlines, hotels and tourism bureaus, and will reduce costs through mass purchases to offer tourists better cost performance," Xiao says.
Costs to certain destinations, such as the Maldives, Australia and New Zealand, have dipped by 5 to 10 percent.
At the moment, the 12-day tour to New Zealand's west coast, Christchurch, Greymouth, Fox Glacier, Queenstown, Lake Takepo, Auckland and Rotorua is priced at less than 30,000 yuan for Spring Festival. For those who want to avoid crowds, Xiao recommends the emerging destinations Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, both of which offer visa-free entry to Chinese.
In addition, Kenya and Tanzania will be at their off-tourism period, which would make for relative quiet traveling experiences.
