“Bottom fishing” maybe the most used “Keyword” in describing what’s happening to businesses such as the stock market and real estate, or even for the travel industry globally.  Looking for business opportunities among discount travelers is especially important ever since the start of the global economic crisis.  However, stimulated by deep discounts and the continuously falling foreign currency exchange rate, many Chinese consumers are considering this year to be a good time to travel abroad.  So, it might be a good idea for the travel industry to go trolling for high end travelers rather than using drift nets to fish for schools of sardines.  According to a recent World Tourism Report (released at the Berlin Tourism Fair), China’s outbound tourism business is actually expected to grow in 2009.

China Polling has conducted a nationwide online International Travel survey to try to understand what Chinese consumer travel plans are and what the outbound tourism travel will be like this year.  The 133 panelists surveyed since last quarter of 2008, 28.2% said they have traveled once in the last year, another 28% traveled twice and 27% have traveled more than twice last year.  Among all, 29% have visited foreign countries before and an overwhelming 96.4% plan to travel abroad in the future.
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Global MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) business is moving and transferring to Asia and with an annual growth rate of 15 to 20%, China’s MICE economy is entering a period of rapid growth, this is according to the 2007-2008 MICE Economy Blue Paper released last year. Not only do foreign enterprise holding MICE here in China, the increasing rate of outflow business visitors or travelers to other countries have also provided tremendous opportunities for both local and international MICE industry players and the related business such as travel agencies. China Polling is now conducting a research to help MICE and travel companies/agencies to gain thorough understanding of the current market condition, who are their most active consumers and how often do they travel on business and personal trip (FIT – Free Independent Traveler), and what kind of service they are looking for?

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China’s outbound tourism market has become the fastest growing and most active in the world. Statistics from the World Tourism Exhibition show that from year 2001 to 2006, the number of China’s outbound tourists almost tripled, growing from 12 million to over 34 million per year. According to their forecasts, the numbers will reach over 50 million by 2015. China has already surpassed Japan to become Asia’s largest exporter of tourist. With such strong and rapid growing trend in outbound tourism, the China market will certainly become one of the most lucrative tourism market in the world. As the Chinese tourists become more sophisticated, simply joining a tour group and sightseeing will no longer be they are looking for when traveling abroad. More personalized travel plan has become an increasingly popular choice for Chinese travelers. To help you study and better understand Chinese consumers’ behavior when it comes to traveling overseas, ChinaPolling conducted a national Omnibus survey that will provide you with in-depth data of Chinese consumers’ preferences when it comes to International travel.

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