SYDNEY, Aug 22 — China has overtaken the US and Germany to become the world's biggest travel spenders, according to the second annual Chinese International Travel Monitor released yesterday by hotel booking website Hotels.com.
The survey was conducted among 3,000 international Chinese travellers and 1,500 hoteliers around the world over May-June 2013. It found that Chinese travellers spent US$102 billion (RM335.4 billion) on international travel in 2012, an increase of 40 per cent from 2012, making them bigger spenders than both Germany and the US.
In addition, 75 per cent of the hoteliers reported that Chinese travellers accounted for up to 5 per cent of their business and 45 per cent of hoteliers reported that over the previous year they experienced an upsurge in the number of Chinese guests. The greatest increase in the number of Chinese tourists in terms of area was in the Asia-Pacific region.
The survey also found some interesting trends among the Chinese travellers. Of those surveyed, 62 per cent of Chinese travellers reported that they preferred to travel independently, rather than in a group. This represents a growing trend as previously in 2012 the split between a desire to travel in a group or as an individual was much more evenly divided.
Leisure was the primary reason why Chinese were travelling, with 96 per cent reporting they did so for leisure, although Chinese travellers did have some complaints.
The biggest issue Chinese travellers had was with the provision of translated material, such as “welcome literature”, websites and newspapers from hoteliers, with 75 per cent of Chinese travellers surveyed stating that this was an area that needed improvement. Language was also an issue among hotel staff, with 42 per cent stating that they “would like more Mandarin-speaking staff in hotels”. — AFP/Relaxnews
