27 Jun, 2015

UnionPay issues report on Chinese outbound travel for summer 2015

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Beijing, UnionPay International media release, 2015-06-24 – UnionPay International issued the “Report of 2015 Outbound Tourism Tendency of Summer Vacation” on June 24, which indicates that the outbound tourism of Chinese visitors is characterized with larger gross scale, higher transaction frequency, more scattered destinations and more rational purchase. Regards to the latest tendency of outbound tourism during the summer vacation, UnionPay International launched the preferential program themed by “Travelling the World in Summer Vacation” on the same day, which delivers a more considerate travelling experience and more diversified global offers to UnionPay cardholders.

Tendency: From group travel to independent travel, from offline to online

The Report declared that China has become the second largest tourist export country in the world. The outbound tourism favored by Chinese visitors is based on short-range destinations, among which Hong Kong and Macao are the top two respectively. Asia ranks to be the first one among all continental markets, while Europe ranks only second to Asia. In the meantime, the outbound tourism favored by Chinese tourists has witnessed such shifting as from group travel to independent travel, from offline stores to the online reservation, from chain hotels to customized and service apartment as well as such changes of tending to selecting international airline companies. In addition, the Chinese tourists increasingly like the experience of local history, culture and art.

Based on the data issued by the China National Tourism Administration, the purchase of outbound tourism in 2014 reached 115 billion USD (about 724.5 billion RMB), with year-on-year growth of more than 20%. At present, UnionPay cards have become the preferred payment brand of outbound Chinese tourists. Besides, the growth of total transactions via UnionPay cards overseas far surpasses that of transaction amount, which indicates the cardholders use UnionPay cards more frequently. Simultaneously, the purchase of outbound tourism is changing from the traditional shopping-orientation to the combination of shopping and leisure. More and more visitors prefer to purchase in daily bazaars, supermarkets and local flavor shops, etc..

Summer holidays rank to be the boom season of outbound tourism. The principal categories include island tour, family trip in a theme park, study tour and etc.. The long-line route is more preferred. The cardholders, travelling with their family, attach great importance to the comfort generally and have high requirement on transportation, hotel and other relevant factors. The cardholders taking the senior and little children to travel have preference for leisure and entertainment, while the parent-child travel with teenagers takes education as the major purpose.

Privilege: Over 100 merchants in 8 tourist destinations discount during summer vacations

UnionPay International has launched the preferential program themed by “Travelling the World in Summer Vacation” recently, which puts emphasis on those features as “practicality, interest, convenience and multi-element”. The exclusive privilege up to 50% of UnionPay cards is launched by over 100 merchants in 8 tourist destinations now through Jul. 31, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, America, Italy and Australia. The participating merchants, apart from department stores, duty-free stores and restaurants, also include bookstores, amusement parks, artistic performance and other merchants of leisure and amusement. In the meantime, some airport duty-free stores maintain the current privilege, and then the families in short of shopping time may replenish their goods at the “last station”.

UnionPay International has offered the “combined privilege” covering airport duty-free stores, core commercial circles and tourist resorts since last year according the tourist tendency as independent travel and in-depth tour. In addition, the “season package” is offered in the outbound travel summit as Spring Festival to enrich the global offers of UnionPay cards continuously.

Features: Deliver comprehensive services to cardholders in a novel way

The preferential program themed by “Travelling the World in Summer Vacations” is equipped with three features.

Firstly, UnionPay International has integrated the privilege of overseas merchants both online and offline for the first time. The exclusive privilege is launched in relation to the online and offline reservations, air tickets, hotels and transportation, which manages to cover such well-known merchants as Agoda, Emirates Airlines, Hilton Hotel, AVIS Car Rental and Taiwan-HSR.

Secondly, UnionPay International launches the innovative “QuickPass” exclusive privilege. It is available for cardholders applying UnionPay “QuickPass” service to enjoy such exclusive privileges as refunding cash and offering coupon in Doota Mall at Dongdaemun in South Korea and New Yaohan in Macao. The maximum discount is up to 30%.

Thirdly, UnionPay International cooperates with several travel agencies to offer exclusive privileges to group tourist cardholders. In other words, UnionPay International joins hands with CITS, CYTS, CTS, Caesar and other well-known travel agencies to launch the card-using award up to 5% for purchase overseas. Besides, the multiple “Bank-Agency Cooperation Routines” launched by Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Beijing and travel agencies offer the membership fare privilege with the maximum amount as 10,000 RMB.

At present, the UnionPay cards are accepted in over 150 countries and regions, covering almost all places frequently visited by the Chinese tourists. It is available for cardholders to use UnionPay cards in shopping centers, brand stores and hotels, and apply UnionPay cards for such daily purchase as shopping in supermarkets, catering, cultural leisure and taxies. Correspondingly, those merchants provide a lot of exclusive privileges for UnionPay cardholders as well.