About 53.6% of Chinese outbound tourists take shopping as primary objectives of free and easy trips in 2015, according to a research of Mafengwo and TouTiao. At least half of their travel budget will be spent on shopping.

China’s outbound tourism shopping market has reached 684.1 billion yuan (US$107.6 billion) in 2015 – far more than the market size of US$3.8 billion (estimated data by BigData) for China’s cross-border shopping market. Chinese tourists spend an average of 5,830 yuan (US$917.3) on outbound shopping, an increase of 16.3% compared to the same period last year.

Several factors have stimulated the growth of China outbound travel shopping:

• Popularity of Chinese online travel websites 
• Easier visa applications, increasing international air flights
• Increased evaluation of RMB exchange rate
• Food safety concerns in China

Since China is the largest outbound travel origin country in the world, more countries have tended to loosen visa policy and add more Chinese-oriented facilities to attract more Chinese tourists. Simple sceneries couldn’t satisfy Chinese tourists’ needs.

Hotel

66.7% of Chinese tourists prefer to stay in hotels located in the central business district. Research of Mafengwo shows that one out of five Chinese travelers wishes to stay in hotels next to shopping malls.

Catering

Travelers shopping needs also promote the development of tourism destinations catering services. The report also shows that 67% travel shoppers at the same time want to enjoy delicious foods in 2015, far more food lovers compared with 2013 and 2014.

Shopping

With the increase of outbound Chinese tourists, more tourists’ shopping focus turned from buying luxury products to cosmetics, clothes, and daily necessities which are more close to their daily lives. Duty-free shops at airports always gather a large number of Chinese tourists.

China National Tourism Administration expects over 120 million trips traveling abroad in 2015 and total expenditure of Chinese outbound tourists will reach 1.23 trillion yuan (US$0.2 trillion).

Also read: China Annual Cross-border Consumption in 2015

Different from UGC (use generated content) market in foreign countries, China online travel UGC market is directly in the “free” stage, skipping the “paid” phase, which indicates that users can obtain and share travel guide and note freely. According to iResearch, online traveling UGC users will exceed 360 million in 2015 in China.

In recent years, UGC enterprises are playing more and more important role in China online travel market. UGC enterprises attract users with accurate travel need to provide large amount of traffic for OTA companies and other suppliers. Meanwhile, they can help users make decision.

At present, there are two kinds of parties in China online travel UGC market. One is vertical companies, such as Mafengwo.cn, Qyer.com. The other one is travel guide community, like Ctrip guide online community.

In 2014, users in China online travel UGC market will be 240 million with an increase of 128% from the same period of prior year, which is estimated by iResearch. Besides, there are 80 million people in Ctrip Guide community, ranking top, followed by Mafengwo.cn and Qyer.com with 55 million and 50 million users respectively.

In 2013, Mafengwo.cn’s users were about 20 million while in 2014, the number exceeded 55 million with an increase of 175%. The top 3 travel guide mobile apps in China were Tuniu travel guide, Mafengwo, and Qyer guide in September 2014.

Also read: China’s Top 4 Online Travel Companies Compared