Hong Kong to the fore of duty free boom during China National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays

CHINA. Hong Kong was the principal beneficiary of strong Chinese outbound travel from 1 to 8 October as the country celebrated National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival falling in the same week, according to a WeChat report.

A National Day big data survey from the Chinese social media platform (first cited in a report by TechNode China), published yesterday, showed that Hong Kong was the top destination for outbound Mainlanders on National Day.

Hong Kong was the top destination, followed by Macau, Bangkok, Phuket, Tokyo, Taiwan, Singapore, Bali, Seoul and Osaka, the report said.

In a key finding, the report pointed out that 52% of outbound tourists’ expenditure was made in duty free stores.

WeChat said that the largest number of Chinese outbound tourists came from first-tier cities Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Second- and third-tier cities, including Hangzhou, Nanjing and Chengdu, followed. The fastest-growing outbound travel city was Chongzuo City in Guangxi province, with outbound travel up by +338% year-on-year.

TechNode China reported that the ‘post-90s’ generation favoured Hong Kong, USA and Japan while post-80s travellers opted for Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. The post-70s generation’s prime destinations were Hong Kong, USA and Macau.

Extraordinarily, over 600,000 people departed Mainland China on 1 October.