Travelport survey reveals China travellers’ trends

Posted: Mon 24 May, 2010 12:00 AM

Travelport has revealed the findings of an online survey that highlights business and leisure travel trends across 12 countries, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The survey highlights have been released in advance of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Summit in Beijing on 25-27 May.

The survey on travel behaviour was conducted by independent research firm The Futures Company with a returned sample size of more than 1,000 respondents for each country. Dispelling a popular myth that the most ‘travel spend’ is on flights, the survey revealed that more than 70 percent of travel is actually spent on non-air services.

The survey also found that consumers are finding value in merchandising services -  airline products and services for which the consumer is willing to pay extra such as preferred seating, airport lounge access and hot meals. The Travelport survey found that business travellers from China value products such as seat assignments, hot meals and ‘fast track’ security channels.

“It is clear from this survey that travellers in China are looking to purchase a range of services at one time, right down to the detail of additional baggage allowance and even restaurant reservations. Using technology to aggregate travel-specific content that enables travel agents and consumers to book a diversity of travel products will be essential to developing the fast growing travel industry in China along with payment and settlement systems that support the buying process,” says Jeff Clarke, CEO and President, Travelport Limited and board member of the WTTC. 

Other key survey highlights:

·        PRC business travellers are more likely than their surveyed counterparts to think ahead and book all their travel components at one time, with more than 50 percent booking accommodation, insurance, airport transfers and more than 40 percent booking car rental, opting for preferred seating, making restaurant reservations and even booking office/meeting facilities

·        China scored highest in using social networking sites to research business travel online, followed by India and Hong Kong. By comparison, consumers in the United Kingdom and the United States generally did not use social networking sites to help decide their business travel

·        China ranked third in terms of using social networking sites to research leisure trips. The survey also found that more than half PRC travellers recommended holiday or locations to others and also enjoyed posting pictures on the Internet following their trip

·        According to the survey, some 46 percent of consumers in China paid cash when purchasing a leisure travel trip, ranking No. 2 after Russia at 72 percent. At 32 percent, credit card purchases in China were approximately half that of the USA (65%), Hong Kong (60%) and United Arab Emirates (60%). Purchasing travel with a debit card was extremely low at one percent in China compared to the consumers surveyed in the United Kingdom that used debit cards 40 percent of the time

·        For leisure travel, more than 50 percent of PRC travellers cited sightseeing as the reason why they selected a destination. This was higher than the global average of 42 percent. Visiting friends and relatives was mentioned by 30 percent of PRC respondents, lower than the global average of 36 percent.

- Ends - 

About the research study:

Over 13,000 people in 12 countries took part in the study with a minimum of 1,000 respondents in each country.  The study was conducted online during December 2009 – January 2010. All respondents were travellers aged between 18-65, who travelled at least once within the last 12 months for either business, leisure or both; in addition to this a series of quotas was used for different types of travel including international air travel.

Media enquiries:

Travelport GDS. Nadia Stoyle, Director, Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific

Tel: +852 2821 2219

E-mail: nadia.stoyle@travelport.com 

 

Double Edge PR. Michelle Larmer or Zina Zhang

Tel : +612 9957 1352

E-mail: michelle@doubleedge.com.au / zina@doubleedge.com.au

 

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