Alipay, in collaboration with US polling company Nielsen, has discovered that Chinese tourists from second-tier cities have become the new engine driving the Chinese outbound tourism market, as part of their study dubbed, ‘Perspective merchant and consumers: from 2018 trends of Chinese mobile payment in outbound tourism’.

After surveying more than 2,800 Chinese travellers and over 1,200 overseas hospitality and retail organisations, the mobile payment firm revealed that 38% of tourists from these second-tier cities travelled to Europe in 2018, surpassing the proportion of respondents from first-tier cities for the first time.

Furthermore, 22% of those from second-tier cities also visited North America, a number on par with the proportion of first-tier cities outbound tourists heading to the region.

Not content with the United States and Canada, the study also recorded another interesting knowledge nugget Chinese tourists are becoming more adventurous, with 10% of outbound Chinese tourists selecting Central Asia, Western Asia and Africa as their destination of choice, an increase of more than a third on 2017’s numbers.

Other key findings include:

•  Outbound Chinese tourists travelled to more destinations in 2018, with respondents visiting an average of 2.8 countries/regions, up from 2.1 in 2017. Both the average actual spending and travel budget for outbound Chinese tourists increased year on year — the former up by 6% to USD 6,026 and the latter up by 15% to USD 6,706.
• Shopping, accommodations and dining remained the top three categories for purchases by Chinese tourists. Discounts, quality and pricing are the three key factors weighing on Chinese tourists’ shopping decisions.