Dramatic increase in tourists arriving from “smaller” Chinese cities

26 Oct 2015  2046 | World Travel News

Largely unnoticed by the tourism industry outside the region, the structure of Chinese tourists visiting destinations abroad is changing as people from China’s second-, third-, and lower-tier cities are becoming more affluent and more willing to travel to a greater variety of international destinations. The shift has already become prevalent in many popular Asian tourist destinations, with tourists arriving from second- and/or third-tier cities outnumbering first-tier travelers in some destinations.


Similar patterns are starting to show in long-haul destinations, with the largest share of Chinese tourists visiting France originating from second-tier cities. Among the analyzed destinations, only Japan is still seeing more than half of its Chinese tourists arriving from first-tier cities, in large part because of the good air connections with Shanghai and the close business ties between Shanghai and Japan.


Most air connections from second- and third-tier cities are concentrated to major destinations in Western Europe, e.g., Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, with Finland being the only Nordic country with direct flights to China’s second- and third-tier cities. There is also a direct link between Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which has a considerable community of Uygur Muslims, and Istanbul, the capital of Turkey.


Connections between China’s second- and third-tier cities to destinations in East Asia are considerably more diverse, with more origin cities and arrival cities than are seen in the case of Europe, and also with a much higher volume. For Northeast Asia, there are 29 different second- and third-tier cities you can fly direct flights to destinations in South Korea from, and 21 different second- and third-tier cities you can fly direct flights to destinations in Japan from. The most well-connected city in South Korea is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Seoul, but the best-connected Japanese city to Chinese second- and third-tier destinations is not its capital, but Osaka. 

   

There is a similar pattern for outbound destinations in Southeast Asia, with a wide range of origin cities throughout China, and a wide range of destination cities throughout Southeast Asia where Chinese second- and third-tier residents can take direct flights. Thailand, the most popular beach holiday destination for Chinese outbound tourists, sees the most diverse constellation of Chinese origin cities out of the Southeast Asian nations, followed the business and finance hub of Singapore.

     


Further south in Oceania, the situation is quite different. Only Australia and its cities of Melbourne and Sydney see direct flights originating from lower tier cities, and the origins are limited to only three second-tier cities in China; Chengdu, Chongqing, and Nanjing. Neither New Zealand nor Fiji can be reached from second- or third-tier cities within China via direct flights.


COTRI, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, forecasts that the trend of increasing numbers of Chinese tourists arriving from second- and third-tier cities will continue, and that it will become even more crucial to effectively satisfy these customer groups’ needs and expectations. Furthermore, considering the small amount of destinations for long-haul flights originating in second- and third-tier cities in China, these cities will form particularly important hubs for travellers from such source cities until direct connections with more non-Asian destinations are established.

Appendix: what cities belong to which tier?



Source: COTRI Market Report, published by COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute

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