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Tourism will continue to grow in 2010

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-12 11:13

Two girls look at red lanterns hanging on a peach tree near the south gate of Ditan Park in Beijing on Wednesday.[China Daily]

Many say they are willing to spend more on travel this year

The tourism industry is expected to continue booming this year, as recent surveys found a great majority of urban residents have travel plans this year and more than half are willing to spend more on trips.

A January survey of 2,700 urban residents conducted by the China Tourism Academy showed that 92.7 percent have travel plans for the next three months beginning in March.

Most desired closer destinations on the mainland, with 21.7 percent saying they wanted to visit Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in the next three months. Another 4.3 percent look to foreign destinations, topped by Bali in Indonesia, the Maldives and Singapore.

Some 70 percent said they are traveling for leisure and want to relieve the pressure from work.

"The survey result is what we expected," said Li Zhongguang, associate professor with the academy who led the survey.

National Tourism Administration of China (CNTA) officials said earlier this month that the tourism industry is expected to maintain stable growth this year, after the 11.3-percent growth last year. In 2009, the country's tourism industry brought in revenue of 1.29 trillion yuan ($188.8 billion).

The CNTA forecast a 12-percent growth for the tourism industry this year, with total tourism revenue expected to exceed 1.44 trillion yuan.

It is anticipated that domestic tourists will make 2.15 billion trips to mainland destinations, up 13 percent year-on-year. They will also make 51 million trips to foreign destinations as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 7 percent year-on-year.

"People are willing to travel as a result of China's economic growth and the government's policy support," Li said.

People also responded that they are willing to spend more on travel than last year.

A separate survey of 3,000 netizens conducted by Ctrip.com, a major online travel service, showed that more than half plan to increase their travel budget this year.

According to the one-month survey in January, 59 percent of those surveyed said they would spend more on travel this year, while 35 percent do not plan to change their budget. Only 6 percent said they would slash their travel budget.

A quarter of those surveyed said they would spend more than 10,000 yuan on travel throughout the year. About 30 percent expect to spend between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan, 40 percent to spend between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan, and only 6 percent plan to spend less than 1,000 yuan.

"The GDP growth of 8.7 percent last year and the stable growth in urban residents' disposable income have together fueled people's willingness to spend more on travel," said Tang Yibo, director of the holiday department of Ctrip.com.

In fact, the briskness of the tourism market has already appeared in the outbound market during this Spring Festival holiday.

More than 1,000 Chinese tourists arrived in New York in batches since Wednesday, forming the largest tour group of Chinese ever to visit the United States, according to tourism experts. They will explore the Big Apple and the other parts of the eastern United States in four groups, before finally gathering in New York on Feb 16 for a big celebration of the Chinese New Year.

"The outbound market this year is especially prosperous. Most tour groups were filled up earlier than usual. Alhough the price is generally up 30 percent over the same period last year, the number of tourists has risen by 20 percent," said Dong Ming, general manager of the outbound department with Shanghai Jin Jiang Tours Co Ltd.

Liu Xiangyang, manager with Guangdong China Travel Service Co Ltd, also said the outbound travel market this Spring Festival has been strong.

"As prices of tour packages to Hainan province and northeast China soared lately, many tourists found the tours to Southeast Asia are more worthwhile. This helped boost the outbound tours," Liu said.

Many others have plans for the rest of the year. Beijinger Sang Jie said her family will make a trip together this year, though the destination has yet to be chosen.

"As my son is now old enough to travel with us, organizing a family trip will be a good idea, which can bind us tighter. It is a new lifestyle," she said.