China World's Biggest Travel Spender, Hotels.com Reports

Chinese travelers spent $102 billion on international travel in 2012, an increase of 40 percent from 2011 and enough to unseat the United States and Germany as the world’s biggest travel spenders, according to Hotels.com, which this week published its second annual Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM).

Based on a survey of more than 3,000 Chinese international travelers and more than 1,500 hoteliers worldwide, this year’s CITM report found that Chinese travelers now account for up to 5 percent of business for 75 percent of global hoteliers, nearly half of which (45 percent) say they’ve experienced an increase in Chinese guests over the past year.

Of interest to meeting professionals are the following findings:

• The majority of overseas Chinese travel (96 percent) has been for leisure purposes, although just over half (52 percent) have also visited other countries for business or education.

• Nearly two thirds (62 percent) of Chinese travelers say they prefer to travel independently and not as part of a group. Likewise, hoteliers say 70 percent of Chinese guests now travel independently.

“Independent travel … is now preferred by the majority of Chinese travelers,” says Johan Svanstrom, managing director of Hotels.com Asia Pacific. “While in-roads have been made in this area, governments will have to take this into account when organizing their visa application infrastructure and processes.”

Planners wishing to attract more Chinese attendees also can benefit from insights about hotel preferences. For instance, 26 percent of Chinese travelers feel it’s important for hotels to accept Chinese payment methods and 75 percent that hotels need to improve the provision of translated items, such as welcome literature, websites, TV programs and newspapers. Another 42 percent say they’d like to see more Mandarin-speaking hotel staff.

“These insights highlight the need for hoteliers to adapt their marketing strategies, with a particular focus on online and social media channels, to attract Chinese travelers,” Svanstrom says. “While the CITM shows hoteliers are making positive steps towards catering to an increasingly mobile and savvy Chinese travel market, it also shows the need for the global hotel industry to adapt facilities and services to more extensively cater to the world’s largest market of travelers.”