Chinese tourists: experience beyond shopping

These days Chinese and non-Chinese travel businesses are addressing many challenges and we wish we all can soon come back to work only for growth, innovation, leisure and value.

As confirmed by Hotelbeds, last year, Chinese tourists travelled more and, according to the joint report from Alipay and Nielsen, “2018 Trends for Mobile Payment in Chinese Outbound Tourism,” as reported by Jing Daily the annual average per person budget for outbound travel is set to rise this year from € 5.505,00 (US$ 6,026) to € 6089,92 (US$ 6,706) in 2018. The average expenditure per trip will decrease but the number of trips will increase and, mainly for younger, the trend is seeking for experience to share over the social media.

Moreover, shopping is no longer the main travel motivation and the average expenditure has decreased as a percentage of the total. Chinese travellers own more information, are more independent and buy less shopping tours preferring other kinds of experiences linked to cultural aspects. This trend is stronger among the younger generations.

In this scenario, according to Jing Daily, Italy is one of the most popular destinations among Chinese tourists, notwithstanding it lacks convenience and it showed some racism cases. Minor destinations, such as Sardinia and Sicily, became more popular as an alternative of Rome and Florence, in so capitalizing the EU-China Tourism Year in 2018.

At Twissen we observed that Chinese travellers, mainly affluent and young, ask for more experiences (also while shopping) during their trips, they expect to pay via their mobile, want to communicate and to be informed in Mandarin language and, when it is time for shopping, they love quality products and, most of all, a significant discount.

Francesco Redi

President and founder at Twissen. Manager in Local Development, Tourism Policies,  EU Funds. He cooperates with several European universities, public bodies, development agencies, DMOs and enterprises.