SHANGHAI, 1 October 2018: Hotelbeds Group has identified the top international destinations for Chinese travellers during the seven-day Chinese National Day holiday period that gets underway today.
The group’s booking data for the Golden Week holiday break, shows Asian nations remain the top destinations for Chinese outbound tourists during the National Day holiday.
Six of the top 10 international destinations are in the region. Thailand remains the top destination despite the fallout from a tragic boat accident in Phuket last July that still impacts on bookings.
Japan follows in second place and then Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea.
However, four non-Asian countries now feature in the list – up from only two for the same period in 2017 – with the United States the most popular outside of Asia followed by Italy, France and Spain.
The top 10 international destinations for Chinese travellers are: Thailand: the United States; Japan; Malaysia; Singapore; Indonesia; Philippines; Vietnam; Italy and South Korea.
Overall, Chinese travellers will travel to 111 countries up from 106 last year.
This year, the National Day holiday period led off with by the 22 to 24 September mid-autumn festival, which was also a three-day national holiday. Its dates shift according to the lunar calendar, meaning that many Chinese workers could this year plan two whole weeks of holiday by taking only six working days off from work.
Hotelbeds Group wholesale sales & sourcing director, Sam Turner explained: “A week long holiday in a country with the world’s largest population offers vast potential for the world’s tourism industry – not least as it is preceded by a three-day national holiday only the week before, meaning many are actually taking two weeks away from the office this year.”
Hotelbeds Group APAC regional director for wholesale sales, Hui-Wan Chua added: “China is the number one source market in the wholesale channel for Hotelbeds Group in Asia Pacific and is now the 4th biggest for the Group globally. Understanding Chinese customers’ needs and sourcing Chinese friendly hotels globally – taking into consideration not just language or catering needs, but also issues such as payments, visa-processing and more – has been a long-term strategy that is already proving very successful.”
China’s National Day holiday, also known as Golden Week, is a seven-day national holiday in China that takes place 1 to 7 October. This holiday season was introduced in the year 2000 to help boost domestic tourism and to allow families to make long journeys to visit relatives.
According to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), 6 million Chinese tourists travelled aboard during the seven-day holiday in 2017 and that is expected to rise to 7 million.
