Table of Contents
Executive Summary
-
- The market
- Holiday spending picked up, but overall sentiment is still cautious
-
- Figure 1: Holiday spending changes, July to December 2020
- Attractive destinations evolve
- Videos gain rising importance in stimulating travel inspiration
- Themes to watch for travel content marketing
- Moral values will drive inspiration source choice and purchasing decisions
- Shorten ‘distance’ between brands and audience
- Utilise live streaming wisely
- The consumer
- Travel participation is high
-
- Figure 2: Destinations for the latest trip, generated by open-end, October 2020
- Fame of the attractions is the key source of inspiration
-
- Figure 3: Source of destination inspiration, October 2020
- Not yet a dominating player in offering local cultural inspirations
-
- Figure 4: Information channel for travel activities, October 2020
- Consumers judge influencers by moral values
-
- Figure 5: Ideal characteristics of travel influencers, October 2020
- Short video apps lead watch and conversion rate in live streaming commerce
-
- Figure 6: Travel live streaming commerce – Watch, conversion and products bought by channel, October 2020
- Transparency in communication can be the next differentiator
-
- Figure 7: Attitudes towards travel-related content and purchasing, October 2020
- What we think
Issues and Insights
-
- Moral values will be the next catalyst to influence travel decision and purchasing
- The facts
- The implications
-
- Figure 8: Nike’s shoe recycling project in China, 2020
- Build trust with transparency to motivate consumer affiliation
- The facts
- The implications
- Strengthen competitiveness by offering travel inspiration from a cultural perspective
- The facts
- The implications
-
- Figure 9: The British Museum live streamed guided tours on Fliggy and Taobao, 2020
The Market – What You Need to Know
-
- Holiday spending sentiment remains cautious
- Emerging destinations in west regions
- Videos play an important role in travel decision making
- Key themes to watch in travel content marketing
Market Overview
-
- Holiday spending recovers, but caution remains
-
- Figure 10: Holiday spending changes, July to December 2020
- Popular destinations remain the same but new choices are emerging
-
- Figure 11: Short videos casted by Dingzhen to promote Litang tourism, 2020
- Prefer communications directly from brands to secondary sources
-
- Figure 12: Preferred ways to receive product recommendation and promotion, 4 December 2020
- Video contents broadly consumed
- Video display has been the key word for destination marketing
- Mafengwo focuses on ‘videolisation’ of travel guides
- TikTok strengthened awareness in travel inspiration
-
- Figure 13: TikTok’s Cloud Tourism Bureau live streaming, 2020
- Fliggy invited people to virtually tour outbound destinations
-
- Figure 14: Live streaming of European travel destinations on Fliggy, 2020
- The rise of ‘live-commerce’ for selling travel services
-
- Figure 15: Live streaming commerce by various players in travel market, 2020
- Themes to pay attention to when marketing travel contents to Chinese consumers
- Moral values influence favourability and purchasing decision
- Consumers want to hear direct voice from brands
- Live streaming commerce is a double-edged sword
- Impact of COVID-19 on travel content marketing and purchasing
-
- Figure 16: Summary of impact of COVID-19 on travel content marketing and channels
The Consumer – What You Need to Know
-
- Famous attractions are a key driver of destination choices
- Short video apps are competitive in travel influencing and live streaming commerce
- Price factors stimulate conversion in live streaming commerce
- Opportunity to compete via offering cultural inspiration
- Moral values guide people’s choices of travel influencers
- Demand for transparency in marketing content
Travel Participation
-
- Easily accessible places are popular choices for people’s latest trip
-
- Figure 17: Destinations for the latest trip, generated by open-end, October 2020
- Overall, travel participation is high
-
- Figure 18: Travel participation – Generated by open-end, by age and gender, October 2020
- Figure 19: Travel participation – Generated by open-end, by demographic, October 2020
- Families with children are key outbound travellers
-
- Figure 20: Outbound travel participation – Generated by open-end, by demographic, October 2020
Source of Destination Inspiration
-
- Famous attractions are the destination ambassadors
-
- Figure 21: Source of destination inspiration, October 2020
- Videos can ‘plant’ outbound destinations on people’s wish lists
-
- Figure 22: Travel destination inspiration, by destinations of latest trip, October 2020
-
- Figure 23: Travel destination inspiration – TV drama or movies, by age and gender, October 2020
Information Channels for Travel Activities
-
- Opportunities to stand out in local cultural inspiration
-
- Figure 24: Information channel for travel activities, October 2020
- Engage Gen-Zers: social media for high tier cities, while mainstream for lower tier cities
-
- Figure 25: Information Channel for travel activities, by demographic, October 2020
Ideal Characteristics of Travel Influencers
-
- Moral values come into play
-
- Figure 26: Ideal characteristics of travel influencers, October 2020
- Social responsibility should be highlighted for purchasing platforms
-
- Figure 27: Ideal characteristics of travel influencers, by information channel usage, October 2020
Purchasing via Live Streaming
-
- Short videos take the lead in live streaming commerce
-
- Figure 28: Watch rate and conversion of travel live streaming commerce, October 2020
-
- Figure 29: Products bought via live streaming on selected channels, October 2020
- Small-value products most purchased
-
- Figure 30: Products bought via live streaming commerce, October 2020
- Purchase is mainly motivated by deal-seeking
-
- Figure 31: Attitudes towards live streaming commerce among live stream shoppers, October 2020
- KOLs more effective in promoting vacation homestays than hotels
-
- Figure 32: KOL’s influence on purchasing accommodation on live streaming – hotels vs vacation homestay, October 2020
Attitudes towards Travel-related Contents and Purchasing
-
- Reserved towards social media interaction
-
- Figure 33: Attitudes towards social media interaction, October 2020
- Transparency could become the next differentiator in travel content marketing
-
- Figure 34: Attitudes toward travel influencing content, October 2020
- Figure 35: Attitudes towards travel influencing content, ads and product presentations, by demographic, October 2020
-
- Figure 36: Attitudes towards travel influencing content – Pay for authentic travel guides, by demographic, October 2020
- Figure 37: Top five actions associated with good impressions of a brand/company, 8 October 2020
-
- Figure 38: Attitudes towards travel ads on social media, by travel information channel usage, October 2020
-
- Figure 39: Attitudes towards paying for authentic content, by travel information channel usage, October 2020
- High income males aged 25-29 are most easily attracted to good deals
-
- Figure 40: Attitudes towards stockpiling travel products, by age and gender, October 2020
-
- Figure 41: Young male’s attitudes towards stockpiling travel products, October 2020
Meet the Mintropolitans
-
- MinTs in lower tier cities are more influenced by destinations filmed in variety shows
-
- Figure 42: Source of destination inspiration, by consumer classification, October 2020
-
- Figure 43: Source of destination inspiration among Mintropolitans – Filmed in TV programmes, by city tier, October 2020
- Hotels and attraction tickets: improve live-commerce conversion by targeting MinTs
-
- Figure 44: Product purchased via live streaming, by consumer classification, October 2020
-
- Figure 45: Mintropolitan’s attitudes towards live streaming commerce, October 2020
-
- Figure 46: Attitudes towards pricing of live streaming commerce, by consumer classification, October 2020
- MinTs crave transparency in content marketing
-
- Figure 47: Attitudes towards transparency in travel content, by consumer classification, October 2020
Appendix – Methodology and Abbreviations
-
- Methodology
- Abbreviations
Appendix – Other Data
-
- Purchasing via live streaming
-
- Figure 48: Purchasing via live streaming, October 2020
Back to top