Abacus: Don’t ignore China’s golden oldies
SINGAPORE: Abacus International CEO Don Birch has warned that the travel industry in Asia has been asleep at the wheel while China has been approaching full speed as an outbound tourism market.
Birch said that the new generation of Chinese travellers would throw a huge challenge to the local and regional travel industry in terms of everything from travel infrastructure, to product development and even the cultural issues associated with mass tourism.
“The full extent of pending change has not been obvious to the Asian travel industry, because of China’s relative isolation until the last few years and many changes have occurred behind partially closed doors.
“As China’s push for a more open economy continues, the rest of Asia will begin to experience many of the same benefits and pressures that make Chinese travel such a remarkable story.”
Birch said China would be the fastest growing outbound tourism market over the next 15 years, outpacing even the UK and the US, with more than 110 million trips in 2020, as more destinations were added to the current 81 countries which enjoy Approved Destination Status.
“While these figures suggest stratospheric growth and a highly-mobile population, the reality is that currently only 1.3 per cent of the Chinese population travels overseas for leisure.
“This is less than a tenth of other markets such as Japan and Taiwan, and speaks volumes about the potential yet to be unlocked in the Chinese market, particularly for international travel.”
Besides enjoying an improved quality of life as a result of economic growth, Birch said a larger proportion of the elderly Chinese population were travelling more, with greater spending power than their younger peers.
“MasterCard’s 10-year forecast of outbound travellers from Asia projects that by 2014, travellers from the retired segment will account for only 13.5 per cent of China’s total outbound travel figures, but they will command almost 45 per cent of total spending.
“According to China’s National Statistics Bureau, the Chinese population of retirees is expected to reach 81 million by 2015.
“Considering that Chinese travellers currently spend an average of US$1,000 a day, we can expect future spending by ‘grey’ tourists to be worth much more, presenting a significant market opportunity for the region’s travel and tourism industry.”
Ian Jarrett
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