In the news: With the Year of the Dog just around the corner we take a look at where the Chinese people are spending the week-long Spring Festival holidays, and how another Singapore company is wooing Chinese visitors to the city-state.
DESTINATIONS: Here’s where Chinese travellers are going to welcome the Year of the Dog
Thailand’s top destination for Chinese travellers for the Lunar New Year (Image credit: ake1150sb/iStock-Getty Images)
Millions of people in China are taking planes, trains and cars back to their families in the provinces to celebrate the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, which falls on February 16 marking the start of the Year of the Earth Dog in the Chinese zodiac.
This is the largest migration of human beings in the world, known locally as chunyun. According to Chinese authorities, a mind-boggling 2.98 billion trips will be made during the holiday season from February 15 to 21.
However, not all are heading home to welcome the Dog Year as an estimated 6.5 million prefer to do it in a foreign land. This is the highest number ever of China’s outbound travellers during the Chinese New Year, according to the 2018 Spring Festival Travel Forecast Report by Ctrip, China’s largest online travel platform, and the China Tourism Academy.
Ctrip attributed the large outbound movement to the continued appreciation of the yuan exchange rate, fewer visa restrictions and better transportation.
The report findings revealed most of the post 70’s and 80’s generation will spend time with families during the Spring Festival holidays. The post 90’s generation choose to travel abroad – to escape from family gatherings and to avoid pressure to get married – with a third of these young travellers “afraid of marriage”.
Ctrip said hundreds of thousands of travellers from 200 Chinese cities have booked various travel products to over 700 destinations in 68 countries on its website and app, and with over 6,000 travel agencies in China.
Thailand tops the list of the 10 most popular travel destinations for the holidays. It is followed Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United States, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia and Cambodia.
Destinations that are seeing huge increase (150%) in the number of travellers are North Europe (Northern Lights trips) and Canada.
The furthest destination is the South Pole, with the longest trip lasting 29 days.
The average price of each outbound trip is 9,500 yuan (US1,500). The most expensive destination is the South Pole, with an average price per order of 160,000 yuan (US$25,300).
According to Ctrip’s data, more and more Chinese (48%) are choosing DIY products instead of the traditional sightseeing tours.
Customised tours, however, are very popular among families. For the upcoming Chinese New Year over 70,000 family-customised programmes were sold, averaging 3,000 yuan (US$474) per person for domestic programmes and 9,000 yuan (US$1,420) for overseas.
The top 10 overseas destinations for the customised tours are Phuket, Bali, Nha Trang, Hokkaido, Tokyo, Boracay, Sabah, Bangkok, Koh Samui and Chang Mai.
There is also a growing interest in private tours and, said Ctrip, the two-people private family tours have been the biggest “dark horse” for the 2018 Chinese New Year.
What the travellers like to do depends on the destination. For example, customers prefer hot spring hotels and skiing when they visit Japan. Those going to the United States favour self-driving trips in the western part of the country, watching ball games and taking helicopter rides.
The report also predicts the number of domestic visitors in the seven-day holiday period will reach 385 million people, up 12% from the previous year. Domestic tourism revenue is estimated at 476 billion yuan (US$75 billion), a 12.5% increase year-on-year. In addition to visiting relatives and friends, island tours, cruise and family tours are the top travel activities.
PAYMENTS: Suntec City offers Alipay options to attract more Chinese tourists
Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City – popular with Chinese tourists (Image credit: f11photo/iStock-Getty Images)
With Singapore as the third most popular destination for Chinese travellers during the coming Lunar New Year, it is not surprising that many merchants in the city-state are offering Alipay as a payment option to attract these tourists.
The world’s largest mobile and online payment platform, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, has been in use in Singapore since 2015 and accepted at many tourist attractions, department stores and even hawker centres. It recently rolled out a tax refund service in partnership Global Tax Free.
Suntec City, one of Singapore’s largest shopping mall, is the latest retail centre to launch Alipay touchpoints in a two-year partnership with Alipay.
The deal will see approximately 350 retail establishments in Suntec City progressively roll out Alipay as a payment option for Chinese tourists. By July 2018 the partners plan to cover 60% of the stores with Alipay touchpoints, they said in a joint statement.
According to the latest figures released by Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore received 17.4 million international visitors in 2017, a 6.2% year-on-year increase. China was the top performing market, contributing 3.23 million tourists, a 13% increase from 2016. Chinese tourists were also the biggest spenders for the third year in a row, increasing the tourism receipts by S$3.08 billion (US$2.32 billion).
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