A travel preference survey conducted by
Ctrip shows that 98% of the respondents plan to travel in 2017, an indication
that travel has outpaced housing and automobile purchases as a top consumption
item in China.
The survey also shows that some 60% of the
respondents choose to travel abroad and their top three outbound destinations
are Japan, Thailand and the U.S.
The survey randomly sampled more than 2,000
Ctrip users in over 20 Chinese cities out of the OTA’s total 250 million
registered members. Booking data from the company’s offerings this year such as
group tour and individual travel were also taken into account using big data
analytics.
More than 80% of the respondents regarded
travel as their preferred recreational choice for 2017, and 73% planned to
spend more than RMB 10,000 (USD 1,452) on travel this year.
Some 57% of the polled travellers indicated
that their travel budget for 2017 accounts for over 10% of their annual income,
and 19% of the travellers will splurge at least 20% of their income on travel
this year.
About 58.6% of those polled preferred free
individual trips, while around 33% would opt for group tours. Around 50% of the
travellers will choose group tours for cross-border travel. Some 10% are
willing to try customized trips.