Major cruise Chinese travelers are the middle-aged and women. Summer and National Day vacations are peak periods for cruise tourism; the top cruise tourism origins are Shanghai and Beijing.

After recent years of market development, Chinese cruise travel market is showing astronomical growth, making China the largest cruise travel market in Asia.

Major customers for cruise travel are the middle-aged and women. Family trips are in strong demand.

With comfortable settings, more activities for entertainment and relaxation and no travel fatigue, outbound travel by cruise is certainly an obvious choice for the middle-aged who have the luxury of time to see the world.

The largest customer segment of cruise tourism in China are those between 30 and 59 years old, accounting for 49% of all cruise travelers, followed by the 60-and-above (27%). In these two age groups, those who are between 35-40 years old and above 65 years old are major consumers for cruise travel.

In terms of gender, there are more female cruise travelers than males in China. In the age group of 30-59 years old, for example, female travelers constitute 31% while males only make up 18%.

Categorizing by traveling companions, family trips claim the lion’s share at 41% of all cruise travel orders. This is due to the recent rise of traveling with children, which sees more and more families consider cruise travel an option for family retreat. Group travel by the silver-haired is also an important customer group, which accounts for 20% of total orders.

Family trips are concentrated during summer and National Day vacations. Entertainment and food are top factors.

Considering children have longer vacation during summer and national day holidays, families often schedule their cruise trips to these two periods. August is when most trips take place during the summer vacation.

Group or non-group travels by the silver-haired have more leeway to plan when to board on their cruises and they usually avoid the summer peak. Group travel by young people and couples’ trips tend to happen during National Day vacation. Traveling with BFFs can take place all year round and is impulsive.

Family travelers prefer sea-view suites and suites with balcony as parents want to provide the highest level of comfort for their children. Not surprisingly, family travelers have higher spending per person than other types of travelers.

Many travelers have grown out of the mindset that cruise travel is about getting the traveler to a destination. Instead, they pay more attention to the activities onboard, including performances as well as food. They are willing to “travel on the cruise itself”. Many cruise travel providers begin to accentuate Chinese elements to cater to Chinese appetites.

As for off-board shopping, Chinese cruise travelers spend the largest amount of cosmetics – as high as 64% of total spending on goods. The second largest spending is on jewelry and watches, which accounts for another 13%.

One month advanced booking is the most popular; more than 80% of customers travel for 4 to 6 days.

Tuniu’s data shows that 34% of customers booked cruise trips by 16 to 30 days in advance last year. Thanks to easier visa applications, 24% of customers chose to book 8 to 15 days in advance.

11% of short-journey cruise customers made last minute decision and booked their cruise less than a week before departure. 19% of customers booked 31 to 60 days well in advance for ample preparation. For ocean cruise travelers, depending on the travel distance and process time for visa application, they prefer to book 61 to 90 days (8%) or more than 90 days in advance (4%).

In 2016, 59% of consumers went for 5-days-4-nights cruise lines, and 22% for 6-days-5-nights lines. At present, China’s cruise travel mostly comprises of offshore short-range trips to Japan.

Trips to Japan and Southeast Asia are mostly consumers by family travelers. Cruises to Middle East, Europe, Americas and the Poles are mostly silver-hair group travelers as well as couples. Among these lines, the major client group for cruise lines that are priced at above 40,000 yuan is those aged between 50 to 65 years old. This indirectly points out that silver-haired customers have both the money and the time to fully exploit the joys of cruise travel.

Most cruise travelers are from Beijing and Shanghai. First choice cruise is Quantum of the Seas.

According to China Cruise & Yacht Industry Association, Chinese outbound cruise travelers totaled 2.1226 million in 2016, the first time in history exceeding 2 million with an increase of 91% from last year.

The top 10 cities by the number of customers traveling by cruises to Japan are Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Suzhou, Wuxi, Ningbo, and Chengdu. As for ocean route cruises, top ten origins are Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Wuhan, Fuzhou, and Tianjin. Shanghai and Beijing travelers are both fervent supporters for short journey and long journey cruises.

Tour-guided cruise customers like to come back for cruises

In 2016, for customers with cruise tour experience, repurchase rate is more than 60%, indicating cruise trips have strong user engagement.

In addition, as the number of repurchase increases, time to order becomes significantly shortened. Those who became cruise travel customers from guided tours take about a year to order while those who have traveled on cruises before take about half as much time.

The growth of high-end cruises travel accelerates; “Cruise+” and destinations will diversify.

High-end cruise travel will grow even faster in China. Chinese cruise travel industry is booming, attracting several international cruise companies to line out strategies targeting the Chinese market in 2017.

In January 2017, Silverseas Cruises’s Silver Shadow has set course for its virgin trip from its home port in Taiziwan, Sekou, Shenzhen. Norwegian Cruise Line and Princess Cruises have announced their premium cruises tailored to the Chinese market – Norwegian Joy and Majestic Princess respectively. International players are one after the other investing more and more in the Chinese market, offering a greater range of choices for Chinese consumers.

“Cruise+” offerings are becoming more diversified. So far, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Dalian, Xiamen, Sanya, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and a couple of other cities have opened up home ports routes for cruises.

For destinations relatively far from home ports, Tuniu offered a couple of options to tackle feeder transport problem, such as “Cruise + Shuttle”, “Cruise + High-Speed Rail”, “Cruise + Airlines”. This allows inclusion of more cities to be accessible to cruise travel and customers do like the idea. In 2017, Tuniu will further elevate the diversity of its “Cruise+” products and make cruise travel more suited to customers’ travel demand.

There will be greater diversity in terms of cruise travel destinations as well. The market has long been saturated with homogenous Japanese locations. As Southern China cruise market matures, Southeast Asia destinations will gain traction.

Taking a cruise trip to Singapore, Vietnam or Thailand will be a very different and refreshing holiday option for Chinese travelers. As traveling to North and South Poles begin to heat up, more travelers are spending their vacation with polar bears, seals, seafowls and penguins.

The number of Chinese cruise travelers has grown by 10 times in the past five years to over 2 million in 2016 from 200,000 five years ago according to CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association).

China is now the world’s eighth-largest cruise market; the number of Chinese cruise travelers is expected to reach 4.5 million by 2020. Compared to 11 million annual cruise passengers in the United States, the Chinese market is clearly still in the development stage.

Including the Royal Caribbean and Carnival, the world’s leading cruise companies have taken allocated a large number of luxury cruise ships to the Chinese seaside, expecting to seize the shares from this fast-growing market.

The average spend of high-end Antarctica travelers from China is about US$36 thousand; 70% take at least 16 days on Antarctica tours.

Antarctica tourism, with a high price tag of between 50,000 to 200,000 yuan, is popular in China in recent years. The primary Antarctica tourism driving force from China are those between 35 and 50 years old consisting of corporate executives and owners of private companies according to a report from a Chinese travel agency HHtravel.

For high-end Antarctica Chinese travelers, dedicated Chinese language tour guide and the comfort of the cruise cabin are the most important. Small and medium-sized cruise ships can accommodate high-end guest with a large private luxury balcony suite and 24 hours of personal butler services.

The average spend of high-end Antarctica travelers is a quarter million Chinese yuan (US$36.23 thousand). 70% spend at least 16 days on Antarctica tours. 70% spend at least 16 days on Antarctica tours. 38% book the tours 8 months in advance.

5 Travel trends in China in 2017

China’s domestic travel market reached 4.44 billion person-trips in 2016, an increase of 11% YoY. The corresponding revenues totaled 3.9 trillion yuan with a growth of 14% according to China National Tourism Administration.

Inbound travelers totaled 138 billion person-trips with an increase of 3.8% YoY, among which foreign travelers were 28.142 million person-trips with an increase of 8.3%. Outbound travelers totaled 122 million person-trips, up 4.3%.

The number of domestic tourists is estimated to grow by 10% to reach 4.88 billion. domestic tourism revenue will reach 4.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.5%.

The number of inbound tourists in China will reach 1.4 billion, up 3.5% year-on-year; the international tourism revenue will reach US $ 126 billion, up 5% YoY. And, outbound tourists will grow by 4% to 123 million.

Outbound Travelers in 2016

China’s outbound travelers totaled 122 million person-trips in 2016 with a total spend of US$109.8 billion, 56% of which were female and close to half are millennials. China has become the top inbound traveler source country for Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Maldives, and UK.

China’s outbound travelers represent less than 10% of the population; and, only about 10% of Chinese hold passports. China’s outbound tourism market still has huge potential.

Outbound travelers spent an average of US$900 in 2016. Though the number of outbound travelers accounted for only 3% of total travelers, the total spend accounted for 16% of total.

Top 10 outbound travel destinations by total spend: Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Maldives, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Italy and Malaysia. And, the top 10 cities are Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Chiang Mai, London, Moscow, New York, Rome, and Sydney.

about 40% of 122 million outbound travelers were organized by travel agencies; the rest are free and easy travelers.

In 2016, the top 20 outbound tourism source cities are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi’an, Xiamen, Kunming, Qingdao, Changsha, Ningbo, Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Nanning, Dalian,

Thailand, South Korea, and Japan are the top three popular destinations with 8.77 million, 8.04 million, and 6 million visitors from China respectively. , respectively, 8 million 770 thousand, 8 million 40 thousand and about 6000000 mainland tourists to travel to these three countries. Go to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the fastest growing tourism, especially Vietnam, Philippines, the two countries to carry out the visa service to carry out the growth of 166%, 124%.

The top ten Chinese travel destinations with the fastest growing number of tourists are Vietnam, Philippines, India, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Some countries and regions saw decreased number of Chinese tourists including Taiwan, France, Italy, Nepal, Switzerland, Turkey, and Greece.

The top ten popular islands for Chinese outbound tourists include Phuket, Bali, Jeju Island, Okinawa, Boracay, Maldives, Sabah, Nha Trang, Saipan, and Sri Lanka. The top 10 destinations for medical tourism are Japan, South Korea, the United States, China, Taiwan, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Switzerland, Thailand, India.

Chinese Cruise Market

China’s outbound cruise travelers exceeded 2.1 million person-trips in 2016, with an increase of 91% YoY; and, inbound cruise travelers reached 138.7 thousand person-trips, up 8% YoY.

China online travel market reached 44.88 billion yuan (US$7.00 billion) an increase of 48.1% YoY in 2014. And, China’s online travel market is expected to total 63.06 billion yuan (US$9.84 billion) in 2015, an increase of 40.5% compared to the previous year estimated by iResearch.

China’s online travel market is expected to total 63.06 billion yuan (US$9.84 billion) in 2015 with an increase of 40.5% compared to the previous year. 12.5% internet users will buy travel products online. China’s online travel will maintain a steady growth rate in the next several years with an annual growth rate over 30%.

Outbound travel by cruise in China has become fashionable in large and developed cities in recent years. Compared to other outbound travel means, cruise travel could offer more activities for entertainment and relaxation, and travelers won’t need to get on and off trains or planes during trips which can save a lot of money for travelers.

China’s outbound cruise travelers increased to 1.48 million person-trips in 2014 and the number is predicted to reach 1.9 million person-trips in 2015, gaining 4.5 billion yuan (US$0.70 billion) for China’s online travel market. More outbound travelers will travel by cruise in the future.

Online travel websites are the main channel for travelers to receive cruise travel information. Promotion activities of cruise travel and information on comprehensive portal websites can attract more travelers. A large number of cruise travelers will order on online travel websites mainly owing to the convenient payment, good public reputation and more promotion activities.

The online travel agencies and online travel websites have made a large contribution to China’s online travel market. Ctrip, Tuniu, LY, Lvmama, Alitrip and Qunar are major online cruise travel webites in China.

Most of China’s outbound cruise travelers are citizens in large and developed regions such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. 42.7% gain the monthly income between 3,000 (US$467.94) to 6,000 yuan (US$935.88). The majority of cruise travelers are bachelors who can soon get aware of this new travel method and willing to try it. Travelers with stable income resources account for the bulk.

Generally speaking, outbound cruise travelers won’t travel alone which is distinct from free and easy travelers. 76.9% cruise travelers will travel with lovers, 67.5% will travel with children, 57.6% with parents, and 51.9% with friends.

Outbound cruise travelers usually spend much time in preparing for the trips. 35.3% will prepare for travel half to one month in advance.

About 57.8% cruise travelers don’t spend more than one week on the cruise. 32.0% tend to spend 8 to 14 days on trips and 10.2% spend over 14 days.

China’s outbound cruise travelers prefer short-distance journeys compared to long-distance trips. Neighboring destinations such as Japan and Korea, Southeastern countries, Aegean, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao have a heavy passenger flow volume.

62.8% travelers like outside staterooms where they can see the sea view. The majority don’t want to spend all time on the cruise. Nearly half cruise travelers are inclined to visit on land in daylight and relax on the cruise at night.

Over 80% outbound cruise travelers plan to spend less than 10,000 yuan (US$1,559.79) on the trips while about 84% are prepared to spend less than 10,000 yuan on chargeable entertainment activities during the travel.

Apart from enjoying the beautiful sea sceneries, outbound cruise travelers also would like to shop at duty-free shops, enjoy delicious foods, and land to watch local sceneries.

China’s online travel market reached 122.23 billion yuan (US$19.07 billion) with a QoQ growth of 18.0% and YoY growth of 45.9% in the third quarter of 2015, among which the online travel agencies gained 5.96 billion yuan (US$0.93 billion) according to iResearch.

A total of 109 million Chinese person-trips visited foreign countries in 2014 according to the World Urban Tourism Federation (WTCF). With the outbound travel and outbound cruise travel penetrated into more China’s users by government’s support and online travel agencies’ favor, the market in China will be further broadened.

Also read: China Outbound Travelers Shopping Overview 2015