The number of Internet users in China albeit most use the China Wide Web, grew rapidly in the first half of this year even as the economy suffered from the global downturn, a report by a quasi-government organization showed.

China's Net user number reached 338 million by the end of June, an increase of 13.4 percent over 2008 within the first half of 2009 a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) showed. But three-fourths of the populace are still offline, presenting still great potential for future growth, it pointed out.

Chinese travel trade and travellers search online for travel information in Chinese
With nearly seven in 10 Chinese leisure travellers accessing destination websites, and about six in 10 using online travel discussion forums to source information, travel operators and tourism promotional bodies will need an effective Internet presence to capture the opportunities presented by Chinese outbound tourism, according to a new research study conducted by The Nielsen Company in partnership with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

The new China Outbound Travel Monitor 2007 reveals that traditional travel agents rank only second behind online sources (63%) as the most popular source of information for potential travellers while the use of traditional media is found to be much lower (40%) for newspapers and magazines.

Conducted in October 2007, via a combination of telephone and online interviews, the Monitor surveyed 1,500 travellers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, about their behaviour, attitudes and opinions of various destinations and provides insights into their decision-making processes, information sourcing, booking choices, accommodation preferences and more.

Chinese outbound travellers from the three key cities are also turning to the Internet for their travel bookings. While the majority is currently using traditional travel agents (61%), Chinese travellers booking via online travel agents and hotel or transport operators websites (29% and 16% respectively) are on the rise, with their numbers expected to continue to increase.

Given the astounding growth in China’s online population, the Internet will become the most efficient way to quickly understand consumers across China’s vast markets; marketers have to innovate to leverage the Internet to reach consumers as standard online advertising may not be adequate to capture the attention of the increasingly technology-savvy Chinese online population, continued Dr. Grace Pan.