A new class of Chinese tourists is increasingly demanding for wellness

In 2016, 122 million of Chinese tourists went on an international holiday, growing by 18% from 2015 and compared to a 3,9% global growth.

As we have already reported, in China there is a growing attention toward luxury and relaxing holidays. According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), this means a huge growing potential in the wellness tourism segment. This sector registered a 10,6% growth from 2013 to 2015, when it was worth 530 billion euros, representing 5,1% of the world economic output. According to the GWI, China ranks on the top of the markets which registered a notable growth, recording more than 18 million wellness holidays in 2015 and an average annual growth of 26,6% from 2013. Chinese wellness tourists globally generated a revenue of more than 26 billion euros, including both the domestic and international expense.

According to the South China Morning Post, wellness and medical tourism growth will be led by an emerging class made up by more than 34 million people who became rich thanks to the new economy, and who have investible assets from 95.220 to 878.941 dollars. In fact, they are sceptical about the health care system in their Country, and they could possibly prefer Japan, South Korea, USA, Taiwan and Germany, being also able to go on more than one overseas holiday. The reason of this interest can be found in the intense lifestyle of this target, which is generally stressed, combined with the life quality in the biggest Chinese cities. According to Tourism Review, a particular attention is paid to spas, especially if located in luxury hotels, and which both offer beauty and detox treatments.

At Twissen we observed that there are opportunities to develop tourism products dedicated to this emerging target of tourists. Thanks to their interesting spending capacity, and considering that Europe proved to be the favourite destination for wellness tourism, addressing to this target by integrating the offered products with specific preferences, such as alternative payment methods, can provide interesting growth margins.

Martina Baldo

She graduated in Intercultural Development of Tourism Systems and she has a passion for foreign languages and cultures. Since 2016 she works as administration and tourism project manager at Twissen.