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Travels Boom Season: What Chinese New Year Means for Travel

January 14, 2020 4 min read
Over the course of Chinese New Year, 3 billion people are expected to board planes, trains and automobiles to celebrate the season! Find out more right here.
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Unlimit Experts
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For anyone that’s been keeping a close watch on the holiday sales just gone, you’d have likely noticed that one of the biggest days for retail came out of Asia – Singles Day, to be exact – has been responsible for $38.4bn in sales in just 24 hours.

But looking at some of the statistics from 2018 & 2019, Chinese New Year has rapidly come to the forefront of travel and retail as a juggernaut of an event. In retrospect, ‘Chunyun’ as it’s properly referred to in China was responsible for $119bn in spending on holidays.


Smartphones
Singles Day has projected forward thanks in large part to mobile payments. Something for travel businesses to be aware of.

Staggering in its own right, but outpaced easily by 2019, which drew in $148.96bn in spite reports at the time referring to it as a ‘decade-low‘ performance.

So with such huge volumes of money being moved around over the course of these 7-days, we take a look at some of the other big stats that are set to take place over Chunyun.

Billions on the Move: Literally!

Economic slump be damned, the Chinese are going to be celebrating in their own ways!

Chunyun, or Chinese New Year (depending on your preference), is something to be celebrated with the family. And what better way to do that than to go on holiday? For the vast majority of people and families in China – that’s the plan!


Photo by Peter Spencer from Pexels

While the figures will certainly be re-evaluated after February, it’s expected that well over 3 billion people will be travelling during Chunyun, according to CNN. If this amount isn’t incredible on its own, for air travel, that’s 79 million people catching flights, for train travel: 440m with the remainder (2.3bn) hitting the roads.

These figures aren’t even including some 40 million that will be taking cruises or travelling by sea.

So where are some of the hottest destinations for Chinese tourists this year? The big 5 include:

  • Japan
  • China (Staycations or visiting family)
  • Thailand
  • Malaysia
  • USA

That’s not to exclude the fact that the vast majority of Chinese travel takes place within the region of S.E. Asia. Why? It’s a great combination of cost-effective travel (rail and road travel is easier) and scenic destinations; Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and others being within easy reach.

If you’ve not had the opportunity to check out some of our coverage of Travel Forward late last year (you absolutely should!) you’ll know that some of the world’s biggest spenders on holiday are the Chinese; spending over $2,000 reliably when overseas.

The rush of Chunyun comes in waves for the travel industry, so it’s worth keeping that in mind if that’s where your eCommerce business is situated. According to Koddi, opportunities for travel and hotel bookings increased by 50% within the first couple of days after the New Year.

Bookings also spiked even more towards the tail-end of February in 2018, showing that holidaymakers are looking for discounts while side-stepping the early rush.

So what Does This Mean for eCommerce Business?

In short, it’s an exciting time to be an eCommerce business. But to be more specific, if your company site isn’t prepared for any of the following, you’ll find yourself either bottlenecked by demand or being unable to connect and provide services Chunyun holidaymakers will be feverishly seeking out.

Going Digital

The sales success seen during previous New Years and Singles Day were all helped along thanks to mobile payment methods. Retailers that embraced these changes and made themselves more accessible and easy to use were being raised up by these waves of consumer spending.

Those that didn’t meanwhile get crushed in the wake.

Emerging businesses in the realm of B2B travel marketplaces are good examples of what can happen when companies embrace change while providing customers with an easy-to-use service that saves them on their travel.

Cash, Card, Credit, Debit, Digital: Payments Galore

In the ‘old’ days, cash, credit and cheque would have been enough to ensure customers could pay for what they wanted, not anymore. Making sure that your business is set up to accept payments in any number of currencies and mediums is crucial for making the most out of this season.

China is the country of smartphones and super-apps, after all. So having your business website set up to accept these diverse options can prove a godsend.

Don’t tip Your [Traffic] Scales

Another area, while seemingly more mundane is dealing with scale and user traffic through your website. The average website can take anywhere from 2-30 times ‘normal’ traffic, but this depends on a number of factors.

What you need to know here is what kind of traffic your site is already getting. Once you have this, you can find out just how many users you can host on your site without either ruining the experience for your users through painful loading times or crash your site altogether.


We’re counting down to the beginning of London’s most anticipated gambling/gaming exhibition – ICE – starting on February 3rd-6th. If you’re in the neighbourhood and want to streamline your payments for the new year, come and say hi!

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