China consumer marketing consultancy China Luxury Advisors have released some new survey research findings on the use of travel shopping and booking platforms in mainland China.

Highlights:

• Chinese OTA Ctrip is the platform most used for both trip planning and booking.
• Other popular platforms include:
  • Qunar
  • Tuniu
  • Fliggy
  • Mafengwo
  • LVMama
  • Airbnb
• In the travel market, more influential in shaping opinions than reviews by friends and family are OTAs and online forums like:
  • Mafengwo
  • Qyer
  • LVMama
• Top sources of inspiration re travel destinations:
  1. OTAs
  2. Online travel forums
  3. Personal recommendations by friends and family
  4. Posts on social media
  5. Official destination website or social-media account
• Film and television are still influential, particularly for those traveling to:
  1. Latin America (cited by 73%)
  2. UK (72%)
  3. France (69%)
  4. North America (68%)
• Chinese travelers are using OTAs like Ctrip and Figgy more than any other resources for booking travel arrangements.

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Comments:

For Western tourism destinations and businesses:

Note the almost total absence from those lists of Western online platforms - the only exception being Airbnb - but the significant influence of film and television on travel to the West - opportunities that spare you the burden and cost of localization and translation. Actionable items:

• Destinations: Support your state/region/city film board.
• Businesses: Actively pursue "product placement" in films and videos - online and offline.

Regarding Airbnb - note that:

• Chinese law re privacy and information disclosure have forced Airbnb to create a dedicated Chinese subsidiary and to store all Chinese data in China.
• All Airbnb data associated with properties in China are by law shared with the Chinese government, including:
  • Host data: names, addresses, pricing, revenues, etc.
  • Guest data: identities of guests - citizens or foreigners - must be reported to the government within 24 hours of arrival.
• Airbnb has invited any hosts who are unhappy with these conditions to deactivate their listings.

China is a tough market in which to compete, but with 84M outbound trips to destinations outside Greater China in 2018, it can't be ignored.