Travel patterns of Chinese tourists are gradually changing as they attach greater importance to safety, uniqueness and sustainability amid a post-pandemic recovery in the global tourism industry, said the top executive of Trip.com, China's largest online travel agency.
Local tour operators, hotels and airlines have also been offering more hygiene products and services after COVID-19 to better protect tourists who go abroad, said Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com, in an interview on Monday.
Chinese tourists are now more willing to form smaller groups with families and close friends rather than enroll in a group made up of 50 strangers, a pattern more widely seen before the virus outbreak. They are also setting aside budgets for local drivers and tourist guides for such smaller groups, she said during Trip.com's Envision 2023 global partner conference in Shanghai on Monday.
Themed travel is also gaining steam in China. People would go for diving in summer, hiking in the fall and skiing in winter. Such consolidated travel patterns also point to sustainability in the tourism industry, she said.
Younger tourists are more interested in traveling to less-visited areas. They view this as a means to help people in remote areas, Sun said.
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