400 Million Reasons Why China Has Become a Market for Timeshare Resales and Rentals
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
In the past 12 months, internet patterns have changed dramatically in China. Where travel destinations were once only researched online, a growing percentage of today’s residents of mainland China both research and buy travel online.
Until recently, Chinese internet technology made e-commerce for travel difficult for Chinese web surfers, plus cultural traditions lingered, creating a preference for face-to-face interactions. But China is presently experiencing the same phenomena that has occurred in North America and Europe… once people begin to gain even the slightest comfort level with booking hotels, timeshare rentals, and air travel online, use escalates rapidly.
The Chinese Powder Keg for Buying Travel, Timeshares, and Timeshare Rentals Online
China already has over 400 million internet users, and many believe the numbers are far higher claiming that young adults relying solely on cell phones (and one of the strongest demographics for internet use) are overlooked in this headcount. With this in mind, the numbers quickly begin to add up to a powdered keg ready for explosion:
- The Chinese yuan has recent seen substantial appreciation again the US dollar.
- Chinese travel visas are becoming easier and easier to obtain worldwide.
- Online search and ecommerce technology in China are quickly catching up with other parts of the world.
- The Beijing Olympics exposed many Chinese to the global face of travel in a new and exciting way.
- The China National Tourism Administration expects year-over-year to see an increase in outbound travel of not less than 7 percent.
- Between January and May of 2010, China’s number of tourists for outbound travel already has increased by 19 percent over the same period in 2009.
- iResearch estimates that revenue from the online travel service market (in China) will more than triple between 2009 and 2013.
We’ve seen it happen here in the US. As a culture of people become internet savvy and internet confident to book travel services online, comfort spreads by osmosis to buying timeshare resales and booking of timeshare rentals from a web-based resource. And for timeshare owners looking to resell timeshare, these changes ultimately add up to a larger—vastly larger—pool of potential timeshare buyers and renters.
