Big city dwellers aren’t the only ones experiencing a travel rush. According to several industry experts and travel agencies, people from the second- and third-tier Chinese cities have been infected with wanderlust, China Daily reported.
To accommodate this market, travel companies are targeting such cities with customized and cheaper packages.
Such is the case with Mafengwo, an online travel service platform that's been wooing locals from second- and third-tier cities like Changsha in Hunan Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and Zhengzhou in Henan Province.
Travel firms are also taking advantage of the upcoming holiday, Qingming Festival or the May Day holiday, which will take place on April 4. Summer is also predicted to be a hot event, literally and figuratively, for travel agencies and travelers alike.
Mafengwo is scheduled to offer a "four-days-only" series of promotions on March 15-18. Packages offered include a trip to Nha Trang in Vietnam from Chengdu for only 1,999 yuan, trips from Changsha to the U.S. for 2,599 yuan, and Osaka to Tianjin for a mere 999 yuan.
"It is becoming more apparent that people from China's smaller cities are catching up quickly in venturing abroad as their incomes rise," said Jin Peng, product manager of Mafengwo's independent travel packages, in an interview with China Daily.
"Many travel agencies from across the world are also starting to tap into the trend by wooing Chinese visitors from smaller cities directly with more promotions, convenient flights and simplified visa applications, while budget airlines are also opening up routes from across the globe to the Chinese smaller cities," added Jin.
Mafengwo also offers inexpensive travel packages to 100 destinations in Japan, South Korea, the rest of Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. Travel packages, aside from the airfare, usually include visa application, cruises, local leisure activities and hotel accommodation.
Industry experts predict that more travelers from lower-tier cities will emerge as outbound tourism is not just limited to the rich and affluent, said Jiang Yiyi, a researcher from the China Tourism Academy.
More outbound trips are expected to take place this year, and along with it, increased levels of spending, according to the latest Market Research Report on Chinese Outbound Tourist Consumption by the World Tourism Cities Federation.