Juwai releases 2018 Chinese Consumer International Travel Survey findings
92% of Chinese consumers intend to travel overseas in 2018 – 77% who have property purchase intentions in mind.
China is the world’s largest and fastest-growing outbound tourism market, and already, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) is predicting China’s outbound travelers will grow from over 122 million in 2016 to hit 154 million this year in 2018.
By 2020, Chinese international travelers are projected to reach 200 million, says China Tourism Academy (CTA).
Seeing as Chinese outbound tourism is often linked with their overseas property purchasing intentions, we surveyed 256 Chinese consumers from 28 China provinces and 11 overseas countries to gain a deeper understanding of their travel and property investment plans over the upcoming Chinese New Year and the rest of 2018.
Here’s a sneak peek of what we’ve found from this survey:
#1 Chinese favour Chinese New Year Golden Week for outbound travel in 2018
With China’s middle-class and upper-middle-class on the rise, it’s no surprise that the Chinese outbound travel boom is still going strong. Which time of the year are they planning to go globe-trotting, though?
According to our survey, of the 92% who plan to holiday abroad, China’s Spring Festival – also known as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year – is their most-preferred time to travel overseas.
25% of Chinese respondents intend to travel outbound during the Chinese New Year Golden Week, compared to 14% who picked the July-August summer school holidays and the 5% who voted for the October National Day Golden Week.
This finding marks the Lunar New Year holidays as a lucrative period for you, and other agents as well as developers, to leverage by ramping up your marketing activities and China strategy for better success with the Chinese market within these 7 days.
However, 48% also indicated their intention to travel overseas during the remaining off-peak months throughout the year, which is possibly due to a growing group of wealthy Chinese travellers who increasingly prefer to avoid outbound travels during peak holiday seasons.
According to Hurun’s “2017 Chinese Luxury Traveller” report, 59% of Chinese luxury travellers would purposely opt to skip travelling over national holidays.
#2 North America remains the most preferred holiday region for Chinese this year, but Asia’s on the rise
On a regional level, 29% picked North America as their top vacation region for 2018, followed by Asia (23%), Australasia (20%), and Europe (19%).
If we delve in deeper to a country level, 20% voted for the US as their favoured holiday location. Australia and Thailand – both which scored a 14% vote, respectively – came in tied as the next most popular travel destination for Chinese in 2018.
What’s most striking to note about this finding is that it correlates with Juwai data, which showed the US, Australia, and Thailand to be the top 3 most popular property investment destinations for Chinese buyers on Juwai.com in 2017.
#3 Chinese have strong aspirations to buy homes in the countries they visit
Survey findings revealed that 77% of our Chinese respondents have property purchase intentions in mind.
60% say they intend to purchase property in their holiday destination, while 17% say they may consider doing so.
Furthermore, 58% also say they are considering emigrating to the destination they’re visiting abroad, while another 20% say they might consider doing so.
As for the 23% of Chinese consumers not considering to buy property in the countries that they’re travelling to, 20% say they will or may consider buying overseas property in the near future – of which 55% who intend to buy within 2 years’ time or earlier.
Once again, this reinforces the conjecture that Chinese overseas travels is often related to their overseas property investment as well.
#4 Chinese buyers have spontaneous tendencies
Interestingly, of the 77% considering to purchase property in the countries they’re travelling to in 2018, merely 49% say they will or may schedule appointments to meet international real estate agents during their travels abroad.
Of this 49% who intend to contact agents prior to their trip, 74% plan to meet with 2 or more real estate agents, which indicates that Chinese buyers often like to explore and keep their options open.
More importantly, 54% of this 49% found their international real estate agents on Juwai.com, compared to word-of-mouth from family and friends (26%), as well as social media (20%).
Of the 51% who do not plan to schedule appointments with agents beforehand, 30% intend to make contact upon arrival, while 65% say they will only make spontaneous contact with agents if they see a random property they like while travelling.
For agents and developers, this means you should always be prepared for unexpected Chinese buyers who may just show up at your office or showroom for an impromptu visit, seeing as this finding suggests that Chinese homebuyers – who are known to be constantly on the lookout for a good property investment opportunity – are inclined to make spur-of-the-moment decisions as well.
#5 Chinese respondents who chose not to travel abroad was due to hectic schedules
Only a mere 8% have no have no intention to travel internationally this year. When asked why, 70% cited a lack of personal free time as their main reason for their lack of wanderlust overseas. However, although they do not plan to jet abroad, 25% say they will or may consider buying property overseas.
#6 77% of ALL Chinese respondents have considered buying overseas property
Regardless of whether they plan to travel internationally this year or not, 77% of ALL 256 Chinese respondents profess they have or may contemplate investing in overseas property.
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