Tourism Update rounds up some of the main trends impacting travel out of the Asian markets.
1.Chinese millennial FITs
By 2030 it is anticipated that China will have 300 million millennials – a group made up of young people with high disposable incomes and a keen interest in travel. This is according to the results of a survey by Added Value, which states that today, Chinese millennials represent 22% of the Chinese population, that they typically travel four times a year, have white-collar professions and often make more money than their parents. They are also comfortable travelling to far-off destinations, with an appetite for adventure. The Chinese International Travel Monitor 2015 found that this group also favour independent travel when going abroad for leisure – as many as 58% preferring this over travelling as part of a group. They are also less likely to rely on travel agents and instead favour word-of-mouth recommendations and social media.
Steven Jin, China Representative for a number of SA-based travel companies including Rovos Rail, Tsogo Sun and Sabi Sabi, says younger generations have realised that group travel may not offer the best quality in terms of unique experiences and have turned to the Internet and their friends for travel advice instead. “While young FITs still only account for a small percentage of total travel, it is a number that is growing every year,” he adds. Key to growing this market will be improvements in Southern Africa’s public transport system. “As these travellers prefer not to join the group, their only options are renting a car or paying for transfers. More efficiency in terms of public transportation would go a long way in appealing to this market,” says Jin.
2.Special-interest travel
EcoTraining has partnered with an established Chinese travel company that sends about 10 groups a year to its bush camps to engage in educational and inspirational wildlife programmes. Katherine Greathead, Marketing Manager of EcoTraining, says the aim is to provide something more than the standard safari to enable the curious and explorative Chinese travellers to learn about the environment and wildlife and not just view it from a safari Land Rover.
EcoTraining’s Chinese agent says its clients are interested in more unique travel experiences that include wildlife and ‘soft adventure’.
3.Less government travel
The Chinese government has clamped down on unnecessary business travel, with budgets much lower than they were in previous years. Jin says this has resulted in substantially less government travel into South Africa – but delegations do still come to look for investment opportunities and joint ventures between the two countries.
4.The rise of bleisure travel
According to a report released by the InterContinental Hotel Group, entitled China Outbound, by 2023 nearly two-thirds of total Chinese outbound travel will be leisure driven, a shift away from the business focus of the past, but around 22% will consider combining the two.
Judy Lain, Chief Marketing Officer of Wesgro, says as much as 20% of Asian travel into the Western Cape is bleisure – or a combination of business and leisure. “This means attending a conference and enjoying some leisure-time activities such as visiting natural attractions.” She adds that pure business travel also still accounts for a significant portion of total Asian arrivals – at 40%.
5.Political unrest driving travellers to Southern Africa
Jin anticipates Asian arrivals into Southern Africa to increase in response to the conflict and unrest that is plaguing much of the Middle East, North Africa and even, to some extent, Europe. “Chinese travellers are very concerned about security and will choose relatively safe destinations to travel to. Turkey and Egypt were very attractive to the Chinese market but now these travellers are looking elsewhere and may consider South Africa, as well as other Southern African countries as an alternative,” he adds.
