Chinese hotel market continues to grow

Inbound hotel room bookings to China have increased by 106 per cent over the last year, despite political turmoil in the Korean Peninsula, according to a new report.

Data from wholesale travel brokerage company Tourico also showed that the Chinese continue to be among the biggest travellers in the world, with outbound hotel bookings from the market growing by 70 per cent year-on-year for the first 17 weeks of 2017.

The Republic of Korea (+68% YOY in bookings), the United States (+10% YOY) and the United Kingdom (+40% YOY) continue to be among the strongest source markets to China, while emerging markets such as India (+160% YOY), the UAE (+212% YOY), and Brazil (+90% YOY) are helping diversify the demand.

Hillary Wang, regional director of Product Development in North Asia for Tourico Holidays, said: “Regional political turmoil, such as the nuclear crisis in the Korean Peninsula, make the inbound China market more unpredictable this year – as Korea was the number one inbound source country for China last year – but, so far, Chinese travel business remains very strong.

“In fact, Tourico is predicting it will double its overall Chinese business in 2017, as both the larger markets and emerging markets continue to demand product in China.”