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Chapter 4 | travel booking and planning
second-tier cities and those with annual household incomes below Rmb200,000 booked with a tour group or travel agency.
49.2%
Of respondents booked tours or made bookings through agencies
In fact, despite – or perhaps because of – the ever-growing array of online travel planning and booking resources available, our annual surveys found a resurgence in the proportion of respondents booking tours or booking through travel agencies. Whereas in previous surveys, the overall proportion of respondents arranging and booking all aspects of their trips themselves was higher than those booking tours or through agencies, our 2016 survey found that 49.2% of respondents booked tours or through agencies, compared to 46.9% who arranged trips themselves. There are a number of factors behind this trend. Whereas Chinese tour groups and travel agencies have traditionally had a bad reputation – many cheaper package tours in particular used to be notorious for spending the majority of their time taking tourists to shops where they were pressured into making purchases – amendments to the tourism law since 2013 have greatly improved trust in tours and agencies. Among other things, the amendments banned agencies from including compulsory shopping trips in their itineraries, meaning that tourists are now more confident that booking a holiday through an agency will not see them traipse endlessly around shops. In addition, some travel agencies have adapted to changing market conditions by introducing so-called semi-DIY travel packages. These include flights and accommodation but enable travellers to plan their own daytime itineraries, enabling a degree of customisation but without the stress of finding flights and accommodation. On a similar note, online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Ctrip (CTRP:Nasdaq) now offer a range of customisable, mix-and-match tour packages, enabling travellers to choose from a range of accommodation options and activities offered as part of an overall package.
Traveller profile | Malaysia
yang yang, 32
Occupation: Tech company employee Annual income (household): Rmb500,000 City of residence: Nanjing Recent country visited: Malaysia
As an employee at an internet company, it should not come as a surprise that 32-year-old Yang Yang
organised and booked his entire family summer holiday online. Mr Yang found a five-day, fournight package at a Club Med resort in Malaysia on Taobao for Rmb10,000 ($1,540) – working out at just over Rmb800 per person per night for Mr Yang, his wife and seven-year-old son. Separately, he booked two nights in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur for Rmb800/ night on eLong. He also arranged visas via an agency on Taobao for Rmb800. After looking at flights with traditional airlines on Ctrip, he booked directly with low-cost carrier Air Asia, paying Rmb5,000 in total for return flights from Nanjing to Kuala Lumpur, as well as an extra Rmb2,000 for luggage and in-flight meals. He paid Rmb1,500 for internal flights from
Kuala Lumpur to the airport nearest their resort, booked on Qunar. Club Med had plenty of activities for their son, who made friends from all over the world. The fact that staff at the resort spoke Mandarin made communication easy. Their hotel in Kuala Lumpur, meanwhile, was “the equivalent of a five-star hotel in China”. Before flying home, the Yangs bought gifts for friends and relatives, as well as a Rmb500 Swatch watch for their son from the KLCC shopping mall in the Malaysian capital. They did not go overboard on shopping, however. “Most of the goods on sale in Kuala Lumpur could also be found back home,” Mr Yang explained.
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