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Summer travel bringing families together
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WITH summer vacation underway, the local travel industry is booming with family-oriented trip packages; about half of the products sold by early July fit that category.
Packages with specific parent-child programs are expected to grow steadily in China this year, according to a report released recently by China National Tourism Institute last week.
Based on the numbers in the first half of this year, the report has estimated about 3.76 billion tourists for the whole year, bringing a total income of about 3.3 trillion yuan (US$540.98 billion). That would represent a 14.8-percent increase over last year.
The report projects steady growth of the domestic tourism market, a quickly expanding outbound tourism market and a mostly stagnant inbound tourism market.
It estimates that there will be about 3.63 billion customers traveling within the country in 2014, a growth of 11.4 percent from last year. They will spend 3.1 trillion yuan, the report predicts.
About 116 million customers are expected to choose outbound tourism, an increase of 18.2 percent from last year, which is projected to bring US$155 billion.
Meanwhile, the inbound tourism is likely to maintain the same level as last year, with certain services improved. The travel service trade deficit (difference between what Chinese spend abroad and what foreigners spend in China) is expected to break through US$100 billion.
A number of factors will work to drive China’s tourism industry. They include steady recovery of the economy, further development of global trade that will produce steady growth in business trips, improvement in traffic infrastructure and policies to facilitate Chinese residents’ visas being approved by more countries.
Summer vacation, Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday are the major market hot spots for the second half of the year.
Based on the quickly increasing number of travel products booked so far this summer, Spring Tour travel agency expects a slight increase of customers, even though the average price of the products has increased by 5 to 10 percent.
Other travel agencies such as C-trip, China’s largest online travel agency, and Datong also say they’ve entered their peak season. They say that family trips are a popular choice each summer.
The number of family-trip products are about 30 percent of the total number of travel packages sold by Spring Tour. About half of those had already been sold by early July. Parents say they choose particular trips because they expect to spend more time with their children while helping them broaden their vision.
“I take my son for a tour every summer. I believe that it will be a great chance for him to learn something that he cannot get from books and classes,” says David Cai, 34-year-old bank manager.
Family trip, in-depth tour, beach and island, and summer resort are still the key words for the travel industry this summer.
Xiamen in Fujian Province, Hainan Island, the Changbai Mountains in Heilongjiang Province, Qingdao in Shandong Province and Taiwan are among the top destinations in China, while South Korea, Thailand, the US and Europe are among the most popular places to go abroad.
Simple family trips involving only sightseeing are no longer satisfactory for many customers. “Educational” family trips that highlight parent-child interaction, experience and learning have become a new trend, says Zou Qinglin, general manager of the Asia-Pacific Department of Spring Tour.
To meet that need, the travel agency designed programs like having parents and children take a simulated ancient imperial exam together, retrace part of the Long March of the Red Army, or work together to find “treasures” on the famous Lucerne-Engelberg Express.
Similar products can be found in other local agencies. A 2-day outdoor family tour at the Thousand Island Lake in Zhejiang Province that includes cycling, kayaking and camping is one of the most popular products of the Datong Travel Agency this summer.
“Many customers show great interest in the parent-child interaction projects, as they expect to communicate with their children more in the trip, which they cannot achieve during work days,” says Yin Hui, general manager of Europe-America Department of Spring Tour.
Tours that visit prestigious schools abroad is a major product for C-trip this summer, with many of its customers taking it as an opportunity to prepare for their children’s studying abroad. Britain, the US, Australia, Singapore and South Korea are among the most popular destinations.
Products involving home stay, simulated class by well-known professors and language training are among the most frequently mentioned requests.
“Many parents today are willing to spend for their children’s travel, even though it may be a bit more expensive. But they may also request that the products meet their needs,” says Stacy Gao with Spring Tour.
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