Destinations known | How women are changing the way Chinese tourists travel – financial independence sends females further afield

Much has been written about China’s free independent travellers (FITs), a growing group of intrepid adventurers who are courted by marketing departments, destinations and designer brands with as much fervour as their coach-taking, tour-guide-trailing counterparts are derided.

Defined as those who take ownership of their itineraries and travel in groups of less than 10, FITs are increasingly young and eager to spend. Oh, and women lead the charge, according to China’s biggest online travel agency, Ctrip.com International. The 2018 Chinese Travel Consumer Report, published together with Mastercard, found that 58 per cent of independent travellers using Ctrip’s platform are female. This marks a significant shift from 2016, when just 46 per cent of FITs were women. Spending on travel is also 14 per cent higher among female tourists, according to the report.

Solo female travel is also on the rise. Digital publication Jing Travel, reporting on Ctrip’s Singles’ Day sales figures, noted that single passenger bookings were up from the previous year. Fifty-eight per cent of solo reservations on November 11 were made by female users.

Once considered “leftover”, China’s older single women have played an integral but often overlooked role in helping the nation realise its economic miracle, and, according to an April report by the World Economic Forum, contribute more to GDP than do women in the United States. Female students also perform better than male students and Kaiping Peng, a psychology professor at Tsinghua University, told the World Economic Forum he estimated “that some 70 per cent of the local employees of international corporations in Shanghai’s Pudong or Beijing’s Central Business District are young Chinese women”.

It should come as little surprise, then, that these highly educated, financially empowered women would want to explore the world, free from the constraints of a pre-packaged tour and with or without male companions.

And it’s not just Chinese women who indulge their wanderlust. A 2016 study by the George Washington University School of Business found that almost two-thirds of travellers globally are women, which has led to a rise in demand for female-only resorts, tour companies and even an island off the coast of Finland. An airline in India has promised that women travelling solo on its flights will never be allocated a middle seat, and will be offered help with their baggage and onward transport, in recognition of the fact that personal security is a major concern for female tourists.