UnionPay International issued the Report of 2015 Outbound Tourism Tendency of Summer Vacation on June 24, which indicates that the outbound Chinese tourists is characterized with larger gross scale, higher transaction frequency, more scattered destinations and more rational purchase.Regards to the latest tendency of outbound tourism, UnionPay International launched the preferential program, Travelling the World in Summer Vacation, on the same day, which offers the exclusive privilege up to 50% of UnionPay cards by over 100 merchants in 8 tourist destinations from now until July 31, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, America, Italy and Australia.
The Report declared that China has become the second largest tourist export country in the world. The outbound tourism favored by the Chinese visitors is 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 second to Asia. In the meantime, the outbound tourism favored by the Chinese visitors 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 the 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 over 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 snack shops, etc.
Now 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 taxis. Correspondingly, those merchants provide a lot of exclusive privileges for UnionPay cardholders.
