Hong Kong is the most popular international destination for Chinese travelers, with data from multiple sources suggesting that travel to Hong Kong is still trending upwards.
Qunar, the world’s largest Chinese online travel platform, has recently released the 2013 Annual Report on Online Booking of Hong Kong Flights, detailing the past year’s consumer trends for booking travel to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the most popular international destination for Chinese travelers, with data from multiple sources suggesting that travel to Hong Kong is still trending upwards. Data from Qunar’s international ticket booking platform shows that consumers searched for Hong Kong flights 20 million times in 2013.
Meanwhile, according to the Immigration Department of the HKSAR Government, mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong in 2013 totaled 40.5 million, an annual increase of 16.8%.
Outbound travel is generally on the grow, with National Tourism Bureau data showing that in 2013 the number of Chinese outbound tourists was approximately 97.3 million travelers, an annual increase of 18%. As mobile and international bookings continue to grow, Qunar expects that international flight bookings on both web and mobile will continue to grow rapidly in 2014.
Some key findings from the report include that the travelers to Hong Kong were relatively young, with most travelers born in the 1980’s followed by those born in the 70’s and then 90’s. The most frequent departure cities were Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen. The most popular airlines for travel to Hong Kong were Dragonair and China Eastern Airlines.
More consumer trends below:
The Young and the Female Favor Travel to HK Given that Hong Kong is known for shopping, dining and entertainment, it is perhaps unsurprising that women seem to favor Hong Kong more than men. Qunar’s data showed that in 2013, women accounted for 17% more of flight bookings to Hong Kong than men.
The data also showed that most Chinese travelers to Hong Kong are relatively young, with over 40% of them between the ages of 24 and 33 (born in the 1980s). Travelers born in the 1970s and 1990s followed. It was also notable that travelers born in the 2000s, 1960s and 1950s are growing rapidly proportionally, showing that online travel booking is starting to catch on in more and more age groups. In terms of frequency of travel to Hong Kong, the peak number was 29 trips in a single year for one traveler.
Travelers from Xi’an plan ahead the most
The data shows that on average, travelers book their tickets to Hong Kong 26 days before the trip, but there was tremendous location-based variation between different cities. The most forward-thinking city was Xi’an, with travelers booking their flights 45 days before the actual trip. Shenyang and Shijiazhuang followed with a 40-day booking window, while Shanghai’s was 28 days and Beijing’s was 25 days. The most casual travelers live in cities close to Hong Kong, like Jinjiang and Xiamen, with booking windows of 8 days and 10 days respectively. Travelers usually take advantage of weekends to travel to Hong Kong, with the average trip lasting 3-5 days.
Hong Kong Airlines is the most popular airline
For flying to Hong Kong, Qunar booking data showed that Hong Kong Airlines was the most popular choice for consumers in 2013, with almost 30% of total bookings to Hong Kong. The rest of the top ten airline choices were: Dragonair, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Shenzhen Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Spring Airlines, Hong Kong Express, June Yao Airlines, and Cathay Pacific.
Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen are the most popular departure cities
In 2013, the Top 10 international flight routes booked on Qunar were: Shanghai-Hong Kong, Beijing-Hong Kong, Xiamen-Hong Kong, Shanghai-Bangkok, Shanghai-Taipei, Shanghai-Seoul, Beijing-Tokyo, Shanghai-Macau, Beijing-Seoul, and Shanghai-Tokyo. As can be seen, the top three flights routes were all to Hong Kong, a testament to the city’s popularity. After Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen, other popular departure cities include: Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jinjiang, and Tianjin.
Round-trip tickets bought in the right times are cheapest
Generally speaking, airlines provide discounts for round-trip tickets, making it more worthwhile than buying two one-way trips. In 2013, 55% of bookings to Hong Kong were round-trip tickets.
In terms of timing, Qunar’s data shows that prices are lowest for one-way tickets to Hong Kong in April, May and June. The lowest price turned up in June, with tickets costing 908 RMB, including taxes. One-way tickets were most expensive in January and February.
Round-trip tickets were least expensive in March and September, with a lowest price of 999 RMB, including taxes- almost the same as the lowest one-way price. Round-trip fares were most expensive in August.
source : Qunar
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
