More and more Chinese tourists are visiting Taiwan!“Taipei” becomes a top search term on booking websites

▲ The number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan has been steadily rising. (Photo / Reporter Chen Mingren)

Reported by Chen Ziying / Taipei

A well-known booking website released the “Chinese Outbound Travel Survey Report” focusing on Chinese travelers’ tourism trends, offering an in-depth look at their spending habits. According to the website’s actual booking data in 2013, Taiwan entered the top ten overseas travel destinations for Chinese tourists for the first time, ranking ninth. Additionally,during the period from January to May 2014, “Taipei” ranked second in terms of search volume among overseas destinations on the website. This survey result is also clearly reflected in Taiwan’s hotel industry, with as many as 85.7% of surveyed Taiwanese hotel operators reporting an increase in the number of Chinese guests.




▲ Source: Hotels.com

Jacqueline Chung, Greater China Marketing Director at Hotels.com, explained that the proportion of independent travel among Chinese tourists is on the rise. The report shows that 67% of travelers prefer to plan their own itineraries, and 54% choose to travel with their children. Chung believes that among mature travel markets in the Asia-Pacific region, China has seen significant growth in autonomy in recent years, with double-digit growth in online bookings compared to the same period last year. Nowadays, Chinese travelers are also quite accustomed to sharing travel-related information online.

In addition, Chung noted that the trend of booking hotels online is becoming increasingly popular. 53% of Chinese respondents said they use websites or mobile apps to book accommodations, and the percentage of Chinese travelers using mobile apps rose from 6% in 2013 to 17%, showing exponential growth. Among them, young people under the age of 35 are the most frequent users of apps for booking stays, accounting for as much as 22%.

The survey report also pointed out that Taiwan is the eighth most favored destination among Chinese tourists. Moreover, the business opportunities that Chinese tourists bring to Taiwan are also considerable. The report found that the amount Chinese tourists spend on hotels in Taiwan ranks eighth, tied with London, indicating that hotel prices in Taiwan are becoming increasingly competitive on the international stage.