China's outbound Spring Festival tourists to reach 618 cities: Airbnb

According to predictions released by Airbnb on Thursday, China's outbound tourists will travel to 618 cities in 88 countries and regions during next year's Spring Festival, reports The Beijing News.

Travelers release floating lanterns during the festival of Yee Peng in Chiang Mai, Thailand on November 26, 2015. [Photo: VCG]

Airbnb has also released data on its market in China in its "2018 China Travel White Paper". The report showed that Airbnb expects its business in China to triple in the second half of this year, with domestic travel exceeded 50 percent of its total business volume.

The report says that Airbnb's business is growing rapidly outside China's first-tier cities. Shenzhen has become the fastest growing city, with a four-fold growth in business.

The driving force for the growth in tourism is the generation born in the 1990s. More than 30 percent of them like to travel alone, and around 60 percent prefer to travel in groups of two or three people. Their destinations are mainly domestic, and the choice of destination is heavily influenced by social media promotions.

The frequency of domestic travel overall has increased significantly, and short-distance travel has become a new favorite, thanks to the convenience of high-speed rail and the popularization of self-driving tours.

When it comes to outbound travel, Southeast Asia was the most popular destination for travelers from China in 2018, accounting for more than half of all outbound travel.

Travelers from China have visited more than 3,800 cities in over 200 countries this year, with a growing number of trips being made to countries taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative. This is shown in a doubling in the number of travelers to Sri Lanka and Singapore.

Outbound travel will be given a major boost by the upcoming Spring Festival. The 10 most popular destinations for outbound Spring Festival travelers are Japan, Thailand, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Spain.