Top ten destinations revealed during Chinese National Holiday

The latest statistics from Hotel.com Chinese website show that among all the competitors around the world, destinations in Asia area become the biggest winner during Chinese National Holiday "Golden Week".

BEIJING – The Chinese National Holiday “Golden Week” was over officially yesterday, putting an end to the short-term tourism flow both domestically and internationally created by the largest tourist market in the world. A fresh list of the top ten destinations chosen by Chinese tourists during the holiday was given by Hotel.com on which Hong Kong ranked first, followed by Seoul, Taipei and Bangkok. Surprisingly, 9 out of 10 “candidates” come from Asia, making the region the biggest winner compare to their European and North American counterparts. Benefiting from easing visa policy, Las Vegas in the US managed to be the fifth on the list, followed by Tokyo, Singapore, Hangzhou, Samui Island and Osaka. However, this result was seen to be different from the “wishing list” of Chinese tourists conducted by Hotel.com in its 2013 Chinese International Travel Monitor report, which showed Chinese tourists were more willing to try European countries with a 72 percentage of votes, while Asian destinations received only 58% comparatively.

1. Hong Kong
2. Seoul
3. Taipei
4. Bangkok
5. Las Vegas
6. Tokyo
7. Singapore
8. Hangzhou
9. Samui Island
10. Osaka

However, there is a limited significance of this ranking on the whole trend in a long-term scheme due to the duration of the holiday and the consideration of budget, because of which Chinese tourists tend to choose destinations in a relatively short distance with comparatively easy visa policy and with which they are more familiar.

In addition, as the new tourism law has been in place since the beginning of the holiday, the structure of tourists changed dramatically as a result i.e. the rate of independent travelers increases considerably while that of group visitors falls. For example, introduced by Joseph Tung Yao-chung, executive director of Hong Kong Travel Industry Council, that a total of 250 Chinese tourist groups registered to come to Hong Kong on October 1st, 30% fewer than last year as the remove of shopping tour requested by the new law forces agencies to raise the price of their tour products.

However, the hope is that the new law will help the industry regulate itself in the long run, “Price wars were vicious in the past, while the recent rises are a sort of reasonable return to fair competition,” said Wang Yanqi, director of the Research Center of Leisure Economy of China. According to the law, tour guides and agencies that break the new laws face steep fines of up to RMB 300,000 ($49,000).

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