(ECNS) -- China's young luxury travelers go abroad every three to four months, mainly for leisure, according to a new study.
The Chinese Luxury Traveler 2016, jointly released by the Hurun Research Institute and Marriott International on Monday, found that in the past year Europe was the top destination for young Chinese luxury travelers, accounting for 61 percent, followed by Japan and South Korea, at 58 percent.
Young travelers also preferred personalized luxury experiences, Wi-Fi, and next generation guest services on smart devices as standard, said the report.
The study found that shopping and food in Japan are popular with young luxury travelers, while the U.S. was an important destination for business travel. France, known as a shopping paradise, was the most popular European destination, and the UK was the top destination for visiting friends and family. Australia was the top leisure destination.
Compared to 2015, an increased proportion of respondents planned to visit the Americas, Oceania and its surrounding islands, Africa, the Middle East and the polar regions in the next three years, while a decreased proportion choose Asian destinations and China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, said the report.
Despite leisure and vacation remaining the most popular reasons to travel, the sector saw a drop of 17 percent compared with last year. Young travelers also cited new and more challenging reasons to go abroad - global travel, adventure travel, polar exploration and road trips were expected to rise by 25 percent, 52 percent, 38 percent and 75 percent respectively over the next three years, it said.
The study also discovered high-end young travelers received tourism information through official WeChat subscription accounts (48 percent), WeChat Moments shares from friends (47 percent), and websites (42 percent).
As for travel plans for the next year, 55 percent of the respondents said they were most likely to travel whenever it fit with their schedule, 36 percent preferred National Day holidays, more than 20 percent said they would go abroad in the summer vacation and another 20 percent choose the Spring Festival holidays.
