Traveloka Reveals New China Travel Trends Alongside Major Airline Promotions

Traveloka, a regional travel platform, revealed the travel behaviour data of Thai and Southeast Asian tourists travelling to China from January to August 2026. The findings show that tourists are increasingly interested in new alternative cities. Alongside this, they have partnered with allied airlines to launch a major flight and accommodation promotion in early October to stimulate the market and increase consumer choices.

New Alternative China Travel Trends

Data collection revealed that Qingdao, a coastal city notable for its German colonial architecture and seaside promenades, has seen a leap in popularity, rising 11 places to become the 8th most booked destination by Thais on the platform, whilst Dalian also climbed 13 places during the same period. Furthermore, Jieyang, home to the airport serving Chaozhou and Shantou in the Chaoshan region, received three times more interest from Thai travellers than other markets, due to its distinct culinary and tea-drinking culture. Meanwhile, Chengdu maintained its strong popularity in 3rd place, with a booking rate 1.5 times higher than the average of all five surveyed markets.

This trend of choosing diverse destinations is not limited to Thai travellers, but also includes tourists from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. The data indicates that flight and accommodation bookings to China's New First-Tier cities, according to the ranking by data platform Yicai, which includes Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Xi'an, and Wuhan, have more than doubled compared to transaction volumes to primary cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou over the same period. The proportion of bookings to these new groups of cities on the Traveloka platform increased by 5 per cent, reflecting that travellers are becoming familiar and confident with travelling to new areas.

Expanding Airline Partnerships

Alex Jung, Head of Marketing at Traveloka, stated that China no longer offers merely the traditional travel routes for travellers from this region, as tourists in each market are taking an interest in different destination cities. The platform has therefore taken its understanding of traveller behaviour and combined it with a diverse selection of airlines and accommodations, to help simplify travel searching and planning in one place. It is also expanding partnerships with leading Chinese airlines such as China Southern, China Eastern, Air China, Xiamen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, and Spring Airlines to offer special fares.

This news should be highly beneficial for tourists seeking new destinations in China, as well as for tourism operators and airlines who can analyse these consumer behaviour insights to adapt for future marketing campaigns.