According to a report released by Bigdata Research, XHS has become the most influential platform when consumers are making travel decisions. In addition, travel related content is the second most popular type of content on XHS, just next to beauty.
Is XHS replacing traditional OTA platforms?
💡 Consumers’ decision making process is different
Traditionally consumers look for travel guides on Mafengwo or Ctrip after they have decided the destination. Now it’s different - the decision making process is more discovery. Consumers come across an interesting post with nice images on XHS and then decide where to go. UGC (user generated content) plays an important role here.
💡 From travel to lifestyle
On XHS, you can see a lot of nice travel-related content are about short trips, weekend getaways and B&B. This is a trending lifestyle of young people who live in big cities. Consumers are more likely to have impulse buying intention to the short trips with much lower cost.
On traditional OTA platforms like Mafengwo, users like to share detailed long-form notes and guides. XHS is different. The content is more visual-driven, representing a lifestyle, which is more eye-catching to young audiences.
