Why More Chinese Tourists Are Picking Niche Travel Destinations?

Planning your next vacation with the family? How about a trip to the beach, Paris, or even… Croatia? That’s what Feng, a Chinese language teacher based out of Shanghai,has decided for her family’s next vacation - complete with a quick stop in the United States to visit Hemmingway’s house. She’s part of a growing group of Chinese Frequent Independent Travelers (FIT) who are choosing to explore less traditional destinations. Armed with smart phones and previous travel experience, FITs are branching out without guides into destinations uncharted on their WeChat Moments.

Individuality

Travel education and booking are literally at the tip of the Chinese user’s finger. Hotels, flights, tours, and food can each be tailored to each person’s desiresand needs much quicker via one of China’s famously innovative and integrated apps than searching the internet for a travel agent. Gone are the days when Chinese tourists feel they have to rely on large tour groups to enjoy a trip abroad. Instead, even niche travel destinations have garnered a plethora of information, reviews, and booking options, allowing Chinese travelers to be confident in their ability to not only customize, but also travel smoothly.

Feng explains her thoughts in turning away from the traditional idea of guided group travel: “I want to experience more than just another big city. I want something new and that can be tailored to my family and I’s interests.” She feels that while she loves visiting important cultural sites, she has two young kids who prefer the water and a husband who loves architecture. “You just can’t meet everyone’s need on a traditional tour” she admits. 

Uniqueness

For Feng’s family, and many other modern Chinese travelers, the appetite for adventure has already been whetted by previous international travel experience. Besides the ability of Chinese tourists to better customize their hard-earned vacation time, traveling as a FIT to niche, far off, and exotic locations that have not been seen on a friend’s WeChat Moments also serves a separate purpose: as an increasingly popular status symbol. Chinese tourists have always been stereotyped as strong shoppers when they travel abroad in a quest for luxurious name brands and other totems of wealth, but now jaw-dropping pictures of exotic cultural and natural wonders (along with a selfie or two) have increasingly become a sign of wealth and status.

The new percentage of Chinese national FITs visiting niche destinations is steadily growing and presents an ideal audience for tourism bureaus. More varied and willing in their spending, even a small percentage of Chinese FIT’s visiting a location can create a large boost in overall tourism revenue numbers over time. Specialized destinations like Feng’s intended Croatia and Hemmingway’s house can show the friends and family back home that not only does the traveler have enough money to take a trip abroad, but also enough education and experience in order to pick more locally and culturally distinctive attractions.

The Road Ahead

Among the growing excitement of often overlooked tourism destinations, Feng notes an important point; the large tour groups to popular cities are by no means gone.“My friends work much more conventional jobs with strict schedules. They’re always very busy and they may only get off work once a year. They’d probably want to go to the tourist cities so they don’t feel like they’re wasting their vacation.” Thus, for these tourists, a group tour would have a larger guarantee of a return on spending. But for Feng and her family, as well as many other modern Chinese national travelers, the new developments and integrations in China’s digital landscape have allowed a new type of traveler to do what they want, when they want, how they want, and where they want with confidence and ease.

● 相关阅读 ●