Chinese Outbound Travel Market Research Articles

Opportunities and challenges brought by the China outbound travel market

Purpose As the Chinese outbound travel market has become a paramount target for world tourism with significant growth potential, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact that the Chinese outbound travel market has on the European tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews both academic and trade literature to provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges that the China outbound travel market might bring to the European tourism industry. Findings The paper presents the major topics relating to China outbound tourism research and the current research gaps. Chinese outbound tourists are not a homogenous group of tourists. The paper addresses opportunities and challenges from two key segments of China outbound travel (Chinese international students and Chinese senior tourists). Practical implications The paper calls for alternative and innovative research methods and research behaviour in tracking the impact of Chinese outbound tourists. Closer collaboration between academics and industry practitioners might provide a better understanding of this market. Originality/value The paper offers recent insights on the Chinese outbound tourism market based on an analysis of relevant literature by both academics and industry practitioners. This allows the relevant stakeholders to adopt proactive strategies to minimise potential negative impacts and maximise opportunities.

An Exploration of Yuan Impact on Chinese Outbound Travel Market to Egypt

This paper studies the potential impact of Chinese Yuan (Renminbi RMB) on Chinese outbound travel market to Egypt. For this purpose were field researches conducted; a questionnaire about Chinese outbound travel market in Egypt and interviews with experts in both tourism and financial markets .The collected data was analyzed statistically using SPSS V. 19. The results of the current study indicate that there is little negative impact of Chinese Yuan currency on Chinese outbound travel market to Egypt in the short time and the major benefits in the long time. Also, the devaluation of Yuan will have a significant impact on what Chinese tourists do shopping in Egypt. In addition, the first estimates also indicate that the impact of Yuan is closed to US dollar exchange rates in the short time. The study presents a number of recommendations for government and tourist businesses in Egypt to exploit some opportunities specially in quick applying of swap currency agreement between Egypt and China, legislation issue to control both tourist businesses and financial market in Egypt and all trip items should price in Yuan for Chinese tourists.

Statistics, publicity and industry intervention: Changing depictions of the Chinese outbound travel market in New Zealand newspapers

Recent socio-economic gains made by China have transformed the country into an enormous outbound travel market for destinations such as New Zealand. Various official statistics that pertain to this market are produced for the purposes of evaluating its behaviour and affirming its commercial value. An analysis of articles published in New Zealand newspapers demonstrates that media-disseminated statistics are used to assess the capabilities of the Chinese outbound travel market, reflect a desire for objective measures and can be broadly associated with a series of managerial interventions. Connecting publically available statistics with certain actions taken by tourism organizations must proceed cautiously. However, the correspondence between official statistics that quantify dimensions of particular issues and certain industry actions can be mapped, to some extent, in proximate terms. Statistics help to make problems and opportunities connected with a phenomenon – in this case, the Chinese travel market – discernible and thus more compatible with management intervention. Enumeration and industry action are intertwined in a manner that merits study by tourism researchers. To chart the connections between data-based depictions of a travel market and industry responses, this paper marshals evidence from New Zealand newspapers – publications that chronicle important dimensions of the country’s tourism industry and are a significant means of public communication. A sequence of statistically based episodic portraits of the Chinese market produces a changing object of scrutiny and intervention for a variety of interested parties.

Segmenting Markets by Bagged Clustering

Market segmentation is ubiquitous in marketing. Hierarchical and nonhierarchical methods are popular for segmenting tourism markets. These methods are not without controversy. In this study, we use bagged clustering on the push and pull factors of Western Europe to segment potential young Chinese travelers. Bagged clustering overcomes some of the limitations of hierarchical and nonhierarchical methods. A sample of 403 travelers revealed the existence of four clusters of potential visitors. The clusters were subsequently profiled on sociodemographics and travel characteristics. The findings suggest a nascent young Chinese independent travel segment that cannot be distinguished on push factors but can be differentiated on perceptions of the current independent travel infrastructure in Western Europe. Managerial implications are offered on marketing and service provision to the young Chinese outbound travel market.

Analysing Chinese citizens' intentions of outbound travel: a machine learning approach

Due to the tremendous expansion of Chinese outbound travel market, it is of great significance to identify the characteristics of potential Chinese outbound tourists so as to develop targeted marketing strategies. As both extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics of individuals are important in influencing their decision-making process, this study explores potential Chinese outbound tourists from these two aspects. Demographic and psychographic factors, as the proxy of extrinsic and intrinsic characteristics, respectively, are incorporated into this study to construct the relationship between tourists' characteristics and their intentions of outbound travel. An advanced machine learning approach, called twice-learning, is employed for modelling in this study. As an intelligent data analysis tool, this method is able to construct models that can provide insight into the ground-truth relationships hidden beneath the data in an essentially comprehensible way, without being limited by the typical assumptions held by the traditional data analysis methods. By applying this method, the important personal factors that influence Chinese citizens' intentions of outbound travel are detected, and the typical groups of potential Chinese outbound tourists are characterised. The findings would be beneficial for destination marketers to develop marketing strategies on positioning and advertising which are tailored to potential Chinese outbound travel market.

Positioning Usa in the Chinese Outbound Travel Market

This study attempts to understand the position of the United States against its major non-Asian competitors in Mainland Chinese tourists’ minds. A multistep procedure of destination positioning analysis was designed, which involved a combination of multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, and logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, this study connects positioning analysis with market segmentation research, as the perceptual mapping analyses were performed at both aggregate and segment levels. Overall, it was found that the United States holds a unique position that is isolated from all other five destinations. The authors discussed the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

Understanding China's long-haul outbound travel market: An overlapped segmentation approach

This study replicates and augments a segmentation approach with overlapped schemes by examining the Chinese outbound travel market. A total of 1600 past and potential long-haul Chinese outbound tourists in three Chinese cities were surveyed and segmented into three groups with overlapped segment members: Entertainment/Adventure Seekers, Life-seeing Experience/Culture Explorers, and Relaxation/Knowledge Seekers. The canonical correlation analysis along with the assignment scheme assigns respondents to canonical variates forming product bundles and implied market segments. The findings provide important insight on destination marketing toward Chinese outbound tourists. Further, evidence suggests new and emerging markets are better served using an overlapped segmentation approach.

Estimating the size of the Chinese outbound travel market: A demand-side approach

The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets over the past decade. However, estimating the size and identifying key tourist-generating areas for the Chinese travel market remain a significant challenge for international marketers. This empirical study employs an incidental target-market approach and presents updated research findings concerning this burgeoning market. Primary and secondary tourist-generating cities of Mainland China were identified based on population size and level of socioeconomic development, and their market potential for outbound travel was assessed through a large-scale telephone survey. This study estimated that the current Chinese outbound travel market comprises approximately 22 million city residents, among whom 11.5 million have traveled or plan to travel to destinations outside Asia. In addition to estimating market size and making recommendations on target cities, the study also introduces an effective research design for identifying target markets and customers.

Chinese travellers to the United States: a comparison of business travel and visiting friends and relatives

This study analyses the socio-demographic, trip-related characteristics and travel behaviours of the Chinese outbound tourists to the US, focusing on comparing business travels and visiting friends and relatives (VFR). It reviews and discusses the changes in China’s policy on outbound tourism since the early 1990s. The sample of 206 Chinese travellers to the US was drawn from the 1997 In-Flight Survey of International Air Traveler. The main findings indicate that both business and VFR travellers were predominantly male in their middle age. Significant differences were found between the two groups in age, gender, occupation, size of travel party, travel companion, length of stay, making hotel reservation before departure, travel expenditure per person, and airline reservation patterns. Followed by dining in restaurants and sightseeing in cities, shopping was a dominant activity enjoyed by both travellers. The findings may be useful to US destination marketers targeting the emerging Chinese outbound travel market.

The emergence of the mainland Chinese outbound travel market and its implications for tourism marketing

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current trends of the mainland Chinese outbound travellers to Hong Kong. According to the World Tourism Organisation’s forecasted figures, China will be the fourth largest generator of outbound tourists in the world. In 2000, China generated about 29 per cent of the total tourists to Hong Kong, and was the biggest market for Hong Kong. Given the importance of this market, this study attempts to find out how the trend of outbound travel and market performance has been developed; what the main social, economic and political factors are affecting the emergence of the China outbound market; and what the policy implications are for the tourism industry in Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific region.