Travel top priority: survey
Consumers still ‘confident about’ China’s economy
The Chinese economy might be slowing and facing considerable challenges, but the country’s rising middle class appears to be unconcerned, with many spending heavily on travel both domestically and internationally.
A survey released on Saturday found that the majority of Chinese consumers ranked travel expenditure as the No.1 item in their budget for 2018 for a fourth consecutive year, highlighting the robust growth in Chinese tourism, which has benefited many economies around the world.
Among the 100,000 households surveyed, 42.08 percent said travel would be the top item in their budget, according to the China Economic Live Survey, conducted jointly by China Central Television’s financial news channel, the National Bureau of Statistics, China Post Group, and the National School of Development at Peking University.
The survey, which collected data from a wide range of domestic online services providers such as travel agent Ctrip and e-commerce giant Alibaba, also showed that Chinese tourists made a total of 5 billion trips in 2017, and 129 million were overseas trips.
During those domestic and international trips, Chinese travelers spent a total of 4.57 trillion yuan ($722.72 billion), with 748 billion yuan spent during overseas trips, the survey showed.
“The Chinese tourism market is still developing and growing very fast,” Jiang Yiyi, director of international tourism development at the Beijingbased China Tourism Academy, told the Global Times on Monday. “And that shows the spending power of Chinese consumers is also growing.”
Jiang said that the slowdown in the Chinese economy in recent years had not affected consumers’ income or their confidence in the future of the country.
“When economic development is sound, people have enough money for travel. So through the increasing spending on travel, we can also see Chinese consumers are still confident about the economy,” Jiang said.
The China Economic Life Survey also showed the majority of participants – 52 percent – were satisfied with their income, and 56 percent of those who ranked travel as the No.1 item in their budget said they were happy with their income. About 18 percent of all the participants said they were unhappy with their income.
New trends
Along with the growing demand for travel, there are other new trends emerging.
Chinese travelers are more interested in high-quality trips focused on expanded and personalized tours of local natural and cultural scenes rather than short stops focused on shopping, which used to be popular, read the survey.
The number of family trips and customized trips are growing fast, the survey said. Family trips grew 200 percent in 2017 from 2016, while customized trips increased by 220 percent, it showed.
Zhang Lingyun, director of the Tourism Development Academy at Beijing Union University, said the new trends indicate that the Chinese tourism market is becoming more “rational” and mature.
“There are fewer crazy shopping trips, with people buying various luxury products. People are more rational now. They focus more on enjoying the natural and cultural scenes,” Zhang told the Global Times on Monday.
Zhang said that these changes have come with the growth of the Chinese middle class and the consumption upgrade that has accompanied it.
“People are focused more on actually improving their quality of life, both physically and mentally,” he noted.
The China Economic Life Survey also showed that healthcare ranked as the No.2 item in most Chinese household budgets, with electronics and home appliances taking the third and fourth spots.
Zhang said two factors might have contributed to the declining interest in buying luxury goods and large home appliances: the campaign against corruption and the manufacturing upgrade in China.
“Most of these luxury goods were bought as gifts related to corruption cases and with the anti-corruption campaign, the number has come down significantly,” he said. “And the manufacturing upgrade also resulted in better products like fridges, so that people no longer need to buy them from overseas.”
“Through the increasing spending on travel, we can also see Chinese consumers are still confident about the economy.” Jiang Yiyi Director of international tourism development at the Beijing-based China Tourism Academy