Language and visa barriers more likely to affect Chinese millennial travellers than other millennial travellers

Language and visa barriers

Last week saw the launch of WYSE Travel Confederation’s Chinese Millennial Traveller report which highlighted significant differences between the experiences, behaviours, and attitudes of Chinese and non-Chinese youth travellers.

Around 20% of Chinese respondents said they had been affected by language barriers during their travels, despite the majority reporting a high level of spoken English. This is around four times greater than the international average.

The report also considered visa difficulties experienced by Chinese and non-Chinese millennial travellers, and again more Chinese respondents reported experiencing visa barriers when planning trips (28% compared to the international average of 12.5%).

The mobile-savvy Chinese millennial traveller

Compared to other millennial travellers surveyed, Chinese millennial travellers are far more likely to book flights and accommodation from a mobile device.

The level of flight bookings from mobile devices by Chinese millennial travellers is around three times as high as for other millennial travellers, and accommodation bookings on a mobile device are twice as high.

Whilst all millennial travellers in the survey reported a similar level of tech equipment ownership, 43% of Chinese millennials own a tablet which could account for the higher levels of bookings coming from mobile devices. In addition, non-Chinese respondents are more likely to carry paper books (50% compared to just 6% of Chinese millennials travellers), rather than Kindles (packed by 7% of millennials compared to 26% of Chinese millennial travellers).

Chinese millennial travellers are also avid users of the internet when sourcing travel information. Around 60% of Chinese respondents use online information sources compared to 37% that use offline sources, and only 27% rely on travel information from family and friends in comparison with 67% of other millennials.