- Hotels, airlines advised to tailor services to Chinese tourists
- Tourism industry insiders appear on CNN’s latest “On China” program
- By 2020, it’s estimated more than 200 million Chinese will go overseas
- Relaxation of government restrictions, rising wealth opening doors
Editor’s note: This month’s episode of On China with Kristie Lu Stout focuses on China’s outbound tourism and airs for the first time on Thursday, May 29, 4:30 pm Hong Kong/Beijing time. For all viewing times and more information about the show click here.
Beijing (CNN) — As the global travel industry rolls out the welcome mat for China’s surge of outbound tourists, it should consider tipping the scales in their customers’ favor.
Consider Emirates Airline, which has won over retail-crazy Chinese travelers by simply boosting their baggage allowance.
“They increased their luggage allowance because they recognized when Chinese travelers go abroad, they come home with more than when they left,” says Martin Rinck, Asia-Pacific president of Hilton Worldwide.
“And just by making that change, they won tremendous market share of the Chinese consumer.”
For the latest CNN “On China” program, I talked to a panel of industry insiders about how to cater to China’s rush of outbound tourists.
Fittingly, we filmed our discussion inside Beijing Capital International Airport — a rare opportunity for an international TV network. The airport is on track to become the world’s busiest passenger hub.
That’s not a surprise, given the boom in Chinese business and leisure travel. By 2020, it’s estimated more than 200 million Chinese will go overseas — double the number that did so last year.
“It has been one of the biggest dreams for Chinese travelers to go outside and travel overseas,” says Chen Xu, a Beijing-based researcher at the Chinese Tourism Academy, a government think-tank that studies tourism trends.
“And now the government has lifted restrictions on outbound travel, so for more Chinese, it’s much easier to travel abroad.”
Fueled by more visas and more money, rising numbers of Chinese tourists are now able to fly further and spend more, many booking their own adventures online on travel sites like China’s Jane Sun, CTrip.com
She asks me to guess how long it took to sell the package. I play along: “Eight minutes?”
“17 seconds,” she says with a smile.
Without a doubt, the interest and buying power of China’s ultra-luxury travelers is immense. Across the board, China’s outbound tourists are the world’s biggest spenders. In 2012, they spent a
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