Hotelbeds connects Western hoteliers with Chinese travellers during International Labour Day
- Ten of top 30 destinations for Chinese travellers during International Labour Day holiday period in 2019 are non-Asian destinations, up from only three last year. *
- Longer than usual International Labour Day period of four-days starting May 1 is driving demand for travel.
- Government decision on 22nd March to extend the holiday to four days resulted in around 75% year-on-year increase in reservations on Hotelbeds platform in following weeks.
- China now ranks as Hotelbeds’ fourth biggest source market globally, driving incremental bookings for Hotelbeds’ portfolio of 180,000 hotels globally.
Shanghai, China – April 29, 2019 – Hotelbeds, the world´s leading business-to-business bedbank, has today revealed the top international destinations for Chinese travellers during the four day International Labour Day holiday period starting on Wednesday, May 1st.
According to booking data from the Hotelbeds platform for this year’s break, ten of the top 30 international destinations for Chinese travellers during International Labour Day in 2019 are non-Asian destinations, up from only three last year.
Paris and London are listed in the top 30 destinations in 9th and 15th places respectively, with Paris last year coming in at number 23 and London not ranking at all in the top 30.
Further down the top 30 ranking, Paris and London are followed by other non-Asian destinations such as Prague (22nd), Barcelona (23rd), Dubai (24th), Honolulu (26th), Madrid (27th), New York (28th), Melbourne (29th), and Rome (30th).
This year’s jump in the number of non-Asian destinations could in part be explained by the fact that this year Chinese citizens will enjoy an extra day of holiday during International Labour Day, taking the break to four days total.
International Labour Day is a nationwide holiday in China. It used to be a seven day “Golden Week” until it was shortened in 2008. The date of International Labour Day is on May 1st and it remains the same year to year, but the working and non-working days plan varies each year, according to the government’s plan, which is normally a three day holiday.
However this year’s extra day was only announced recently by the State of China, when on March 22 it announced a reshuffling of the non-working days for the Labour Day Holiday. This has resulted in a surge of extra accommodation bookings – with Hotelbeds’ data showing a year-on-year increase of around 75% in the weeks following the government’s surprise announcement.
Sam Turner, Wholesale Sales & Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds, said, “As more Chinese travellers travel abroad, we are continuously finding ways to connect our Chinese B2B travel buying clients and their Chinese travellers with our extensive network of hoteliers across the world. We’ve worked hard over the last few years to raise awareness with our Western hotelier partners on how to best attract Chinese travellers to their hotel, advising them on points such as not just language, but strategies such as social media, payments and even Chinese travellers’ tastes. It’s during holiday periods such as this that the benefit for our Western hoteliers suddenly becomes very clear.”
Hui-Wan Chua, APAC Regional Director for Wholesale Sales at Hotelbeds, said, “For this year’s International Labour Day holiday we noticed a strong picked up in booking for medium-to long-haul trips especially for popular international destinations. This is likely due to the longer holiday period driving advanced bookings – this year we saw the same booking figures in March that we’d seen in April the year before - and in the weeks after the government announcement we saw an overall surge of around 75% in year-on-year bookings. Our Chinese B2B travel buying customers are very hungry for hotels that suit the needs and budget of their travelers as more and more Chinese travelers venture beyond Asia for the first time.”
Currently a total of 180,000 unique hotels are available on the Hotelbeds system and a majority of the hotels are directly contracted under exclusive terms and conditions. This growth has been driven by the renewed focus of Hotelbeds in providing its hotel partners with complementary bookings via its network of 60,000 travel buyers from both non-domestic source markets and B2B buyers – including tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites and loyalty and reward points schemes.
* All figures quoted in this press release are based on bookings made via the Hotelbeds booking platform.
About Hotelbeds
Hotelbeds is the world’s leading business-to-business Bedbank.
In a fragmented and complex travel landscape, Hotelbeds provides over 180,000 hotels across the globe with access to high-value, complementary distribution channels that significantly increase occupancy rates and optimise RevPAR – whilst not competing with the hotelier’s direct distribution strategy.
Hotelbeds does this by offering hoteliers access to a network of over 60,000 hard-to-access B2B travel buyers such as tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites, and loyalty schemes in over 140 source markets worldwide. These channels provide hotel partners with returning guests that book further in advance, cancel less, spend more in-destination and stay longer.
In addition to accommodation, Hotelbeds is also the world’s largest B2B seller of travel ancillaries, offering 24,000 transfer routes and 18,000 activities, as well as attractions, tickets and car hire. Operating under the ‘Beyond the
Bed’ product line, it provides both hoteliers and travel distribution partners with an efficient platform and powerful tools to easily integrate and commercialize its leading portfolio of high-margin products.
The company is headquartered in Palma, Spain and employs around 5,000 employees across over 60 offices globally.
Follow us:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotelbeds
Twitter: @Hotelbeds
Facebook: Hotelbeds
Hotelbeds Media contact
Media Relations & Corporate Affairs
Wei Wang · whitney.wang@hotelbeds.com
