A new breed of Chinese travellers is emerging in China, dubbed free independent travellers (FITs), who increasingly shuns escorted travel in favour of spontaneous exploration.
FITs – new breed of travellers from China (Image credit: Tomwang112/iStock)
Travel site TripAdvisor shared findings from a Phocuswright study, which provide insights into the behaviour, spending patterns, and preferences of more than 3,000 outbound Chinese travellers.
The study, China Unbounded: The Rapid Rise of China’s Outbound Millions (sponsored in part by TripAdvisor), revealed half of the FITs plan to spend more and travel more in the next two years.
According to China Unbounded last year the number of Chinese outbound leisure trips grew 20% year-on-year to 120 million with with expenditure reaching US$205.7 billion, based on figures released by the Chinese National Tourism Administration.
Highlights of the study’s findings (infographic below)
Who they are
• Young, well-off, self-reliant, and increasingly experienced: Nearly nine out of 10 (89%) Chinese FITs are adults aged 18-44, with 41% of them belonging to the post-80s generation (aged 25-34). Three in four (77%) have an undergraduate degree or higher, and 44% earned a monthly income of ¥15,000 (≈S$3,156) or more. A bigger share comes from 1st tier cities with more than a quarter surveyed living in southern China’s Guangdong province, followed by Shanghai, Sichuan province, Beijing and Jiangsu province.
Chinese FITs are increasingly becoming more experienced outbound travellers. On average they have taken 5.5 international trips in their lifetime, higher than the overall average Chinese outbound traveller at 5.2 international trips.
English proficiency is reasonably high among these travellers with 41% saying they can understand most English. They are also increasingly self-reliant, preferring to organise their own itinerary and shifting away from the antiquated stereotype of pre-packaged large and escorted group tours. Nine in 10 purchased travel components individually for their most recent international leisure trip.
Where they are going, when they travel and for how long
Ready to travel any time, short planning period. (Image credit: Naphat_Jorjee/iStock)
• Ready to go on holiday at the drop of a hat: Chinese FITs have a short travel planning cycle with nearly one-third (32%) choosing their destination one to two weeks prior to their departure for their last trip. Nearly one in five (18%) Chinese FITs decide on where to go within less than a week of their departure.
• Have a propensity for longer trips, with travel peaks in early October: The outbound travel season for Chinese travellers kicks off with the May 1 holiday, and peaks at the early October National Day. Over a quarter (29%) of outbound trips are taken in October, and 77% occur between May and October. One in three (34%) Chinese FITs spent three nights or less on their last international trip compared to 40% who spent four to six nights, and over a quarter (26%) who spent seven or more nights abroad. Nearly a third of trips taken around National Day holiday (October 1) consist of seven nights or more.
• Short haul travel to neighbouring destinations continues to dominate outbound trips
Japan is a top outbound destinations for Chinese FITs. (Image credit: vichie81/iStock)
Short haul destinations in Greater China, North Asia, and South East Asia account for more than nine in 10 outbound FIT trips. The top three countries visited by Chinese FITs on their last leisure trip were Japan, Thailand, and South Korea.
The top countries for outbound leisure trips are Japan, Thailand, South Korea, United States, Malaysia, Singapore, France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Canada
For those who visited Europe in the past 12 months the most popular countries were France, UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The top five US states visited by Chinese FITs were New York, California, Hawaii, district of Columbia. and Washington.
Why they travel and what they want
• Shopping, on lookout for more holistic holiday experience: The study showed that 42% of Chinese FITs said shopping was an important motivation for their trip especially to north east Asian countries including Japan and South Korea. However, quality of shopping rated relatively low in importance in choice of destination, indicating that while travellers are expecting good shopping options in many travel spots, other factors play a big role in the final selection.
56% of this segment are motivated to travel internationally simply by the desire to get away and relax, which seems to be the case especially for travel to South East Asia. 47% are lured by the desire to see natural, cultural and historical attractions.
The top three most important deciding factors ultimately boiled down to whether a destination was deemed safe or politically stable (65% rated this “extremely important”), followed by whether it featured a clean environment with low pollution (36%), and if it had natural features and landscapes (35%). Australia and New Zealand were rated most highly on these destination characteristics by Chinese FITs who have travelled there.
How they are spending
Chinese FITs spend freely on holidays.
• Wallets are wide open when on holiday: The Chinese FIT spends on average ¥17,713 (≈S$3,726) per trip, with 29% having spent ¥20,000 (≈S$4,208) or more on their last trip abroad. Those from bigger cities spent the most per trip. Surprisingly, however, the difference in average spend by FIT in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities is a mere 17%, pointing to the rise in purchasing power by FITs in Tier 2 cities. The biggest spenders were from Beijing (¥26,438≈S$5,562), Sichuan province (¥22,155≈S$4,661), and Shanghai (¥22,077≈S$4,645).
With an average spend of ¥6,850 (≈S$1,441) shopping accounted for the lion’s share of the travellers’ international travel budget regardless of destination. They are the biggest shoppers during trips to the US and Canada, with an average shopping spend of ¥17,576 (≈S$3,698).
Second to shopping Chinese FITs spend an average spend of ¥4,493 (≈S$945) on airplane tickets and ¥3,075 (≈S$647) on accommodation. The average spends on dining for Chinese FITs was ¥2,080 (≈S$438).
• Plan to spend more and travel more in the next two years: While short haul destinations in East Asia (especially in Greater China) remain a top choice for outbound Chinese FITs, there is also strong interest in long-haul travel to Europe, Australasia and North America in the next two years.
Nearly half (49%) of outbound Chinese FITs plan to take more trips in the next two years as compared to the last 12 months, and more than half of them plan to take longer trips (52%) and spend more (54%) while abroad.
