China's travel market is powering through the headwinds of a slowing economy, driven by enormous travel demand among the country's expanding middle class.
Freshly crowned as the largest travel market in Asia Pacific, China will sustain double-digit travel bookings growth through 2015, according to a new report from travel industry research authority PhoCusWright. Travelers continue to shift online at a blistering pace, with online leisure/unmanaged business travel gross bookings growing three times faster than the overall travel market.
"Despite ongoing economic challenges, the middle class is hungry for independent leisure trips and their options for online searching, shopping and buying are expanding," said Maggie Rauch, PhoCusWright research analyst. "With online travel penetration still trailing well behind Japan and Australia/New Zealand at 15%, there remains enormous potential for online growth, and competition among travel suppliers and intermediaries is hotter than ever."
Online travel gross bookings will more than double between 2012 and 2015 to exceed US$30 billion, according to PhoCusWright's China Online Travel Overview Sixth Edition. Online travel agencies, led by homegrown players Ctrip and eLong, will continue to post substantial gains, even as they lose online share to hotel and airline websites. And looming on the periphery are the new breeds of online intermediaries: an increasingly transactional crop of metasearch sites and online shopping malls that have upped their emphasis on the travel vertical.
Gain insight into the latest developments in China's rapidly growing online travel market. China Online Travel Overview Sixth Edition presents market sizing and projections for the total and online leisure and unmanaged business travel markets in China from 2011-2015. The report also outlines the key trends that will shape China's travel market in the years to come.
Report highlights include:
- Total market and online leisure/unmanaged business travel bookings for 2011-2015
- Bookings by major travel product segment – air, hotel, rail and car rental – including discussion of key players and segment dynamics
- Detailed online travel market analysis, including online penetration, share by segment, and unique characteristics
- Comparison of online travel agencies (OTAs) versus supplier websites, including key players, bookings and projected growth rates through 2015
- Examination of the OTA landscape – local versus global players, recent activity and comparison of business models and offerings
- Emergence and impact of other online intermediaries, including metasearch and online shopping malls
- Continued importance of offline fulfillment and the role of traditional travel agencies
- Impact of the mobile channel on online travel shopping and purchasing
- Importance of social media platforms and online reviews in travel research and planning
PhoCusWright's China Online Travel Overview Sixth Edition provides the numbers and need-to-know facts and analysis on China's large and rapidly advancing travel marketplace. Read the full report HERE.
