by Joachim Fischer, CIBTM Beijing
The number of Internet user in China, most of them using China Wide Web, grew rapidly in the first half of this year even as the economy suffered from the global downturn, a report by a quasi-government organization showed.China now has 420 million internet users according to official figures released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) this month. This is nearly a third of China´s popukation ( 31,8 %) and is up by 36 million since the end of 2009, making China the first country in the world to have over 400 million internet users.
Chinese travel trade and travelers search online for travel informations in Chinese. With nearly seven in 10 Chinese leisure travelers accessing destination websites, and about six in 10 using online travel discussions forums to source information. Travel operators and tourism promotional bodies will need an effective Internet presence to capture the oppurtunities presented by Chinese outbound tourism, according to a new research study conducted by the Nielsen Company in partnership with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).
The new China outbound Travel Monitor 2007 reveals that traditional travel agents rank only second behind online sources (63 %) as the most popular source of information for potential travelers while the use of traditional media is found to be much lower (40 %) for newspapers and magazines.
Cinducted in October 2007, via a combination of telephone and online interviews, the Monitor surveyed 1.500 travellers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, about their behavior, attitudes and opinions of various destinations and provides insights into their decision-making processes, information sourcing, booking choices, accommodation preferences and more.
Chinese outbound travelers from the three key cities are also turning to the Internet for their travel bookings. While the majority is currently using traditional travel agents (61%) , Chinese travelers booking via online travel agents and hotel or transport operators websites (29 % and 16% respectively) are on the rise, with their numbers expected to continue to increase.
Given the outstanding growth in China´s online population, the Internet will become the most efficient way to quickly understand consumers across China´s fast markets; marketers have to innovate to leverage the Internet to reach consumers as standard online advertising may not be adequate to capture the attention of the increasingly technology – savvy Chinese online population, continued Dr- Grace Pan ( Global Times).
