CHINA/ASIA PACIFIC. Research agency m1nd-set has released new air traffic data for Chinese travellers. It has reported significant differences in destinations between the top 4 tier cities in Mainland China as well as from Hong Kong and Macau.
The major destinations for all outbound travellers are predominantly domestic destinations within China for Tier 1 to 4 city travellers, it found. By contrast, 8 out of 10 trips from Hong Kong and just under 7 out of 10 trips outbound from Macau are to foreign destinations.
The data has been compiled through m1nd-set’s Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S) data platform in partnership with IATA, looking at air ticket sales for the past 12 months.
M1nd-set said 24% of trips from tier 1 cities booked were for foreign travel over the 12-month period, significantly more than outbound travel from lower tier cities. Only 9% of trips from tier 2 cities and 3-4% for tier 3 and tier 4 cities were for travel outside China.
“The most striking differences can be seen in the foreign destinations for outbound travel from each of the four city tiers,” m1nd-set found. “There were far less trips from tier 1 cities to North East Asian countries (32%) than there were from lower tier cities. The B1S reveals that 42% of trips from tier 2 cities, 49% from tier 3 cities and 78% from tier 4 cities were made to North East Asian destinations.”
Some 41% of trips from Hong Kong were to North East Asia, while 57% of Macau outbound travel from Macau is to North East Asia. Macau’s outbound travel is limited to North East and South East Asia given the airport’s connectivity being limited to the region.
South East Asia is favoured more among tier 2 city travellers, with 40% of trips made to this region, m1nd-set stated. Only 25% of trips from tier 1 cities were to South East Asia, 22% from tier 3 cities and only 12% from tier 4 cities. 32% of trips from Hong Kong were made to this region. A greater percentage of flights are taken from tier 1 cities to Western Europe and North America, with 13% each, than from Hong Kong where only 9% of outbound travel is to Western Europe and 8% to North America. Even tier 3 cities see a higher percentage of outbound travel to Western Europe with 10% of flights, the analyst said.
Head of B1S at m1nd-set Pablo Saez Gil commented: “The B1S air traffic data has an unparalleled coverage when it comes to Chinese travellers. IATA’s DDS platform has not only full coverage of all tickets sold to Chinese travellers through online and offline travel agencies, but also includes all the tickets sold directly by the airlines. The nationality model developed in conjunction with IATA on top of their DDS platform, which is used by leading airlines and aircraft manufacturers, adds nationality insights to 1,500 airports worldwide, enabling the duty free industry to track passengers by nationality anywhere in the world.”
The B1S analysis also revealed country and city destinations for each origin city and tier. “Despite a decline in travel to Korea since the THAAD missile crisis”, Saez Gil noted, “South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand are the top four destination countries across all tiers as well as from Hong Kong and Macau.”