Produced & Sponsored by Compass Edge Workshops

Workshop: Smart China: The New Digitally Affluent Chinese Travelers and How to Attract them


Ballroom 7th floor June 20, 2018 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

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Anita Chan
Dmitry Chernyshev
Lily Udomkunnatum
Deepak Ohri

China’s outbound travel market raked up 130 million trips in 2017, a 7% increase on 122 million trips recorded in 2016.  Thailand continues to be the hottest outbound destination according to Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP), the largest online travel agent in Asia and the second largest in the world.

The rise of China as a tourism source market is proving a significant strain on destinations, Thailand is one of the most obvious examples. The country is the most popular overseas destination for Chinese and expects to attract an impressive 10 million Chinese travelers this year.  Many of these travelers will ultimately be middle-class, lower-spending travelers traveling in tour groups. The low prices and proximity of Thailand make it an ideal budget getaway for Chinese tourists.

Nonetheless, although 60 per cent of Chinese consumers still prefer to travel on package tours to long-haul destinations mainly due to language barriers, more and more younger visitors, especially millennials, are opting to travel as FITs. This gives them the opportunity to create their own customised itineraries that are not bound to rigid schedules.  It is noted that the majority of FIT travellers are Chinese millennials, a group who is projected to drive 55 per cent of the expansion in China’s consumption spending over the next five years.

However, China is a vast market and it works very differently digitally from the western world.  Besides, online marketing to Chinese is not pure online.  Offline marketing efforts are critical to China online success as well.

In this session, Compass Edge will provide a lot of teasers on how China online marketing works differently from the western world.  Besides, invited a panel of hoteliers who are Compass Edge hotels clients.  They are Ms. Lily Udomkunnatum, Owner of Burasari Group, Mr. Deepak Ohri, Chief Executive Officer at lebua Hotels and Resorts co. Ltd and Mr. Dmitry Chernyshev, General Manager at Siam@Siam Design Hotel Pattaya.  They will join the panel to share their first hand experiences on how to attract affluent Chinese travelers.  We welcome all hotels attending to share your experiences at the end for an interactive session.

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