China is the largest outbound travel market and expected to see 103.4 million trips in 2021 constituting 40 percent of all Asia Pacific outbound travel, nearly four times that of the #2 and #3 markets being South Korea (25.6 million) and India (21.5 million) respectively according to a latest Mastercard Report.

Forecasted international outbound trips from the top 10 Asia Pacific markets by 2021

1. China – 103.4 million
2. South Korea – 25.6 million
3. India – 21.5 million
4. Japan – 19.4 million
5. Taiwan – 16.3 million
6. Malaysia – 14.2 million
7. Australia – 11.8 million
8. Singapore – 11.7 million
9. Indonesia – 10.6 million
10. Thailand – 9.1 million

Forecasted top 10 fastest growing Asia Pacific markets by international outbound trips (2016-2021 CAGR)

1. Myanmar – 10.6%
2. Vietnam – 9.5%
3. Indonesia – 8.6%
4. China – 8.5%
5. India – 8.2%
6. Myanmar – 10.6%
7. Vietnam – 9.5%
8. Indonesia – 8.6%
9. China – 8.5%
10. India – 8.2%

2016-2021 Outbound Travel Forecast

Chinese consumers’ confidence continued to rise in 2016 according to Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence. The outlook in China (80.8, +4.8) continues to increase due to improvement across all five components, with Stock Market (+9.1) contributing the most to the increase.

Hong Kong saw more than 10 point improvements while Taiwan saw more than 10 point decreases.

India tops the index as the most optimistic market in Asia Pacific, followed by Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and Bangladesh. Overall, consumer confidence in Asia Pacific continues to hold steady, showing stability (within +/- 5 points from the last survey) in nine out of 17 markets.

Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence Data – H2 2016

Related: Social, mobile the key driving forces of Chinese post-90s

China ranks the first of the top ten sources of tourists to Asia pacific destinations with 50.4 million international overnight visitors; it is nearly 20 million more than that of South Korea which ranks the second according to a MasterCard research.

Of the top ten most popular Asia pacific destinations, Bangkok is the most popular destination for Chinese tourists with 8.2 million international overnight visitors, followed by Seoul (5.2 million), Tokyo (2.7 million), and Phuket (2.5 million).

Bangkok is also the most popular destination among ten Asia pacific destinations with 21.5 million international overnight visitors, followed by Singapore (12.1 million), Kuala (12.o million), and Tokyo (11.7 million).

Of the top ten sources of tourists to Asia pacific destinations in 2016 ranked by total expenditure, China spends 45.3 million dollars in 2016, accounting for 18.2% of the total share; and, the total expenditure of China is slightly more than twice the sum of South Korea.

By 2025, China’s investment in tourism will reach US$278.7 billion, taking over the US as the world’s largest tourism country; by 2025, China will surpass Spain and France to be the second largest country by tourism revenue and the most spending country.

Also read: China Online Travel Market Overview for Q1 2016

Emerging markets are leading the way with smartphone users in China (45.0%), India (36.7%) and Singapore (23.3%) Asia Pacific’s biggest adopters of digital wallets according to MasterCard.

Related: 7 Habits of China Online Shoppers

Overall, close to half of respondents (48.5%) across Asia Pacific have made a purchase using their smartphone in Q4 2015, led by those in India (76.4%), China (76.1%),South Korea (62.0%) and Thailand (61.1%).

Clothing and accessories (35%), personal care and beauty products (20.9%) and movie tickets (20.4%) are the top mobile shopping purchases amongst Asia Pacific consumers. Close to half of the consumers in China (46.4%), India (42.5%) and Korea (42.1%) shop for clothing and accessories on their smartphone.

Also read: Alibaba mobile MAUs grew to 410M, up 42% in Q1 2016

There are often distinct differences for almost everything between China and the rest of Asia and Oceania and there’s no exception for luxury travel industry. Here are some insights Brand Karma study revealed.

Luxury travellers from China place higher value on helpfulness and efficiency of service while the other APAC travellers prioritise breakfasts and peacefulness in their travel reviews, according to research from Brand Karma.

The Chinese prefer to post on Ctrip and Weibo while the others use TripAdvisor and Facebook most.

Google+ has 100 million users in China, Twitter has 80 million, and YouTube has 60 million. LinkedIn has over 20 million users according to Business Insider. China does not have a strong Facebook presence and the luxury hotels participate in Weibo.

Top Hotel Review Sites

In 2013, 88% of all traveler reviews were posted on OTA sites. The category’s share of reviews peaked at 91% in Q1 2013.

China sees only 16.8% of luxury reviews posted on TripAdvisor compared with 48% in the rest of Asia Pacific. And Chinese booking and review websites such as Ctrip, Qunar, Dao Dao, and Dian Ping
continue to gain shares of luxury hotel reviews globally.

In China, Ctrip receives most positive reviews (71%) and Dao Dao with least positive reviews (19%).

Chinese travelers are increasingly posting reviews via their phones, and average review length (number of words) is declining.

The Guest Experience

Chinese families strongly appreciate when hotels offer a luxury experience that includes great childcare. Being friendly and staying up-to-date with all the hotel and surrounding location have to offer are important to delight guests.

As the largest population in the world, the Chinese are used to crowds, but they are disappointed when
hotels feel crowded, especially in swimming areas and at breakfast. Chinese guests are as connected as ever and expect to remain so while travelling. As such Internet access costs disappoint many luxury travellers who feel complimentary and fast Wi-Fi should be available.

In addition to business needs, they want to share their experiences and pictures with friends and family on Weibo.

Top Performing Luxury Hotels in China

• The Puli Hotel And Spa
• Golden Gulf Hotel Yantai
• Crowne Plaza Hotel Suzhou
• Sheraton Guangzhou Hotel
• Glenview ITC Plaza Chongqing
• Crowne Plaza Hotel Lijiang Ancient Town
• Le Meridien Chongqing Nan’an
• InterContinental Suzhou
• Intercontinental Tangshan
• Hyatt on the Bund, Shanghai

It’s important for marketers to understand the uniqueness of Chinese travelers, the preferred social networks and features of each.

One example is Wechat; it now offers payment solutions and we have seen airlines like Spring Airlines to utilize the feature to provide convenience and high conversions.

Source: Brand Karma

China Tourism Academy estimates total revenue generated from China’s travel industry is going to reach RMB 3.3 trillion (USD 530 billion) this year with 3.76 billion person trips.

Business travel in Asia Pacific, led by a dominant China, outpaces the rest of the world, according to a newly released travel forecast by the GBTA Foundation.

Driven by infrastructure investments, exports and service development, business travel spending in China has grown from US$32 billion in 2000 to US$225 billion in 2013, an average of 16.2% each year. By comparison, growth in business travel spending from the US has grown at an annual rate of just 1.1% since 2000.

The report, which details travel spending in 75 countries, along with the top industries, economic factors and characteristics that influence business travel, finds that record high business travel spending is driven by a few dominant markets – namely the US, China and Western Europe.

Currently Asia Pacific owns the largest share of the business travel spend market with 38% followed by North America (21%) and Western Europe (24%). GBTA expects that by 2018, Asia Pacific will have gained another 5% in market share, while the US and Western Europe will lose three% and two%, respectively.

This report underscores that China, along with the other BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia and India are leveraging their business travel expenditures into more economic opportunities,

said GBTA Executive Director and COO Michael W. McCormick.

We expect to see this shift in business travel spending to continue.

The report’s other key findings include:

• 89% of total business spending around the world – totaling US$984 billion – originated from traffic in Asia Pacific, Western Europe or North America.
• Even accounting for concerns over an economic slowdown in the country, GBTA expects China to surpass the US in business travel spending by 2016.
• Italy and Spain continue to slip in GBTA’s annual rankings of the top 15 countries by travel spend. In contrast, BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – continue to rise in the growth ranking, representing four of the top six countries in terms of business travel spending growth. A chart detailing the top 15 countries can be found below.
• Regionally, Asia Pacific is already the largest business travel region in the world, comprising 38% of global business travel. Business travel spending in Asia Pacific totaled $392 billion in 2013 – more than doubling in size since 2000 with a growth rate of 7.5% annually. GBTA expects business travel spending to continue growing at a 10.2% annual pace over the next five years.

This year’s global BTI™ predicts single-digit expansion of global spending on business travel and the emersion of the Asia Pacific region as the world’s largest travel market, comprising 38% of global business travel with two-thirds of that activity coming from China and Japan,

said Tad Fordyce, head of Global Commercial Solutions at Visa, Inc.

As global business travel is expected to continue growing in the coming years, China is projected to surpass the U.S. as the top business travel market in the world by 2016.

The Annual Global Report & Forecast identified other key trends that could impact business travel over the next year, including political activity in Emerging Europe and the cost of oil.

TOP 15 BUSINESS TRAVEL MARKETS

The GBTA report identified the top 15 business travel markets, ranked by spending in 2013. The largest growth was seen in three of the BRIC countries – China (15.1%), India (10.4%) and Russia (8.7%).