Despite economic slowdown, China travels

Chinese travellers are continuing to make both domestic and international travel plans with an emphasis on fun, budget and cool. These are the findings from the recently introduced Qunar Cup, an experience-sharing contest on Sohu Communities’ Travel Club portal. 
 
According to travel search engine, Qunar, which has been working with Sohu.com to create a platform for Chinese travellers to share their experience and future travel plans, within the first week of its launch in December last year, tens of thousands of visitors shared their favourite travel memories and their travel plans for 2009. The Qunar Cup aims to provide a platform for Chinese travellers to share their most memorable travel experiences.
 
Despite the global economic slowdown, Chinese travellers continue to demonstrate strong interest in domestic and overseas travel.According to the latest data by iResearch, users of online travel reservations in China crossed six million, to an estimated RMB 2.8 billion in 2008. This represents a 22.7 percent growth compared to the previous year.
 
As per the entries in the contest, the most popular topics include Fun (65 percent of respondents), Budget (58 percent) and Cool (32 percent).Qunar also commissioned international research firm Synovate to provide independent analysis of the intentions of Qunar site visitors. The research reveals that 72 percent of Qunar users have already planned domestic leisure travel for 2009, while 29 percent of Qunar users have indicated their intentions to travel internationally for leisure.