WeChat Travel Report Shows Hong Kong Top Destination for Mainland Tourists During Holiday

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.

Chinese people enjoyed an eight-day holiday from Oct 1 to Oct 8, thanks to National Day (国庆节) and Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) falling on the same week this year. WeChat issued a National Day big data report on October 8, announcing that Hong Kong was the top destination for outbound Chinese tourists on National Day, our sister media TechNode China is reporting.

READ: Record-Breaking Crowds Visit Beijing Over National Day Holidays

Not surprisingly, the largest number of Chinese outbound tourists were coming from first-tier cities Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Second- and third-tier cities followed, including Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Chengdu. The fastest growing outbound travel city was Chongzuo City in Guangxi province, with an outbound travel growth rate as high as 338 percent.

Most of the mainland’s outbound tourists chose closer travel destinations like Southeast Asia, East Asia (South Korea and Japan), Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Here are the highlights of the report:

• Hong Kong was the top single destination for outbound tourists, followed by Macau, Bangkok, Phuket, Tokyo, Taiwan, Singapore, Bali, Seoul, and Osaka.
• Southeast Asia received the most Chinese tourists followed by East Asia (South Korea and Japan), Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, North America, and Europe.
• Fifty-two percent of outbound tourists’ expenditure was made in duty-free shops. It’s interesting to note that expenditures made in duty-free shops and drug stores exceeded 60 percent of the total expenditure.

• The largest number of people departed the country on Oct 1. More than 600,000 people departed the country, far higher than other smaller holidays.
• The post-'90s generation visited Hong Kong, the US, and Japan the most, while the post-'80s generation visited Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan the most. The post-'70s generation visited Hong Kong, the US, and Macau the most.
• WeChat payment was used the most in Hong Kong, followed by Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan.
• 6.3 billion red packets (hongbao) were sent and received on Mid-Autumn Festival.
• Most WeChat calls were made between the post-'60s generation and post-'90s generation. The longest average phone call was 750 seconds when post-'60s generation called '90s generation, followed by 610 seconds when the post-'90s generation called the post-'60s generation.

Images: Nations Online, WeChat