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Baidu Outbound Travel Insights and Solutions in 2025: A Complete Guide for China Marketing Success
As China’s outbound tourism rebounds in 2025, brands seeking to connect with high-intent Chinese travelers must go where these travelers begin their journey—Baidu. With its unrivaled user base, robust data ecosystem, and deep influence across all travel phases, Baidu is the to-go platform for outbound travel decisions in China. For marketers, this presents a golden opportunity to craft precise, engaging, and highly localized campaigns that truly resonate.In this article, we explore the latest China outbound travel insights from Baidu, and how iClick Interactive, Baidu’s largest overseas partner, empower your brand to capture attention and drive conversions in this fast-growing segment.
Baidu: China’s Digital Compass for Outbound Travelers
As the world’s leading Chinese-language search engine, Baidu covers 97.5% of China’s internet users, holding the No.1 spot in China’s search engine market.
Its flagship Baidu App boasts 724 million monthly active users (MAUs), and many of its associated platforms, like Baidu Maps (百度地圖 ), Baidu Baike (Baidu Encyclopedia 百度百科), and Baidu Knows (百度知道), each surpass 100 million MAUs1. Together, these tools form an expansive and integrated mobile ecosystem.For outbound travelers, Baidu plays a pivotal role throughout the decision-making journey. From initial destination searches and travel guides to visa information, itinerary planning, and even in-trip discovery and post-trip sharing, Baidu remains the core hub for information.
Source: 1 2025百度海外旅游局营销通案发布
Baidu’s Audience Demographics and Travel Behavior
Baidu’s 2025 outbound travel data1 reveals a thriving and energetic audience:
- 72% of outbound travelers fall within the 18–44 age group, making them highly receptive to online campaigns.
- Gender distribution is balanced, enabling broad lifestyle and product relevance.
- 94% of these users fall into the mid-to-high consumption tier, indicating strong purchasing power and a willingness to spend on travel experiences.
Geographically, outbound demand is strongest in economically vibrant regions:
- Users from first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, along with prosperous coastal provinces, lead outbound travel interest.
- 42% of traffic comes from first- and new first-tier cities—areas known for higher income and consumption power.
Source: Baidu’s Data in Jun 2025
Source: 1 2025百度海外旅游局营销通案发布
Understanding Outbound Chinese Travelers’ Evolving Demands
Travelers in 2025 are seeking an informative journey and increasingly focused on personalized experiences. Before departure, their search behavior on Baidu reflects key priorities:
- 29% look for initial destination research and feasibility.
- 24% search for itinerary tips, local attractions, and unique experiences to plan.
- 21% focus on visa policy and processing, ensuring seamless entry.
Source: Baidu’s Data in Jun 2025
To conclude, the modern Chinese traveler doesn’t just book—they research, compare, and validate options thoroughly before making a decision. This underscores the importance of visibility on Baidu’s platforms during these critical planning moments.
How Baidu Engages Chinese Travelers Throughout the Decision Journey?
Baidu offers a range of marketing tools that allow brands to engage travelers from pre-trip inspiration to in-trip activation. Here are some latest updates:
1. Baidu Map: Real-Time Engagement with On-the-Go Travelers
Baidu Map covers 180 million+ points of interest (POI) globally, making it a key platform during travel. A standout feature in 2025 is its “High-Impact Push Notifications”:
- Businesses can target dormant users in regions like Hong Kong and Macau, where 150K+ daily travel-related searches occur.
- Even if users aren’t active, brands can push alerts with just one click, redirecting users to a branded H5 page or map location.
This offers a highly targeted and effective way for local businesses, ideal for attractions, restaurants, or retail businesses looking to connect with potential Chinese travelers.
2. Baidu Baike & Baidu Knows: Build Trust with Authoritative Content
Travel decisions are often built on trust and credibility. Through Baidu Baike and Baidu Knows, brands can establish a reliable and educational presence:
- Baidu Baike: By creating or optimizing encyclopedia-style entries, Baidu now allows travel brands to showcase comprehensive and localized information, from historical context, attractions to travel tips, and more, all paired with immersive visuals. This strengthens brand image and fosters emotional connection.
- Baidu Knows: This platform allows brands to directly answer user-generated travel questions. Marketers can insert official answers (text, image, or video) that not only inform but also establish authority and relevance.
Baidu’s ecosystem provides a full-funnel experience, reaching Chinese tourists before, during, and even after their trip.
Explore more of Baidu’s marketing tools—contact iClick to get started.
Why Choose iClick Interactive for Baidu Campaigns?
At iClick Interactive, we help brands unlock the full potential of Baidu’s ecosystem. As Baidu’s largest overseas partner, we provide unrivaled access and strategic expertise to ensure your campaigns perform effectively.
Here’s how we add value to your business:
- Precision Targeting: We help brands target pre-trip and in-trip travelers, segmented by age, gender, city, travel interest, and more. By reaching the right users at the right time, when they’re actively searching for travel experiences, brands can connect with high-intent travelers with precision.
- Seamless Ecosystem Integration: Through Baidu’s ecosystem, we build full-funnel campaigns tailored to user habits:
- From search and content discovery before departure,
- To navigation and venue recommendations during trips,
- To post-trip content engagement, including user reviews and photo sharing.
- Result-Driven Customized Campaigns: Whether your goal is to promote travel packages, destination branding, or retail offerings, we tailor campaigns with:
- Strategic content localization
- Visual storytelling
- Performance tracking and optimization
Partner with iClick to Win in China’s Outbound Travel Market
As the Chinese outbound travel market continues to thrive, success depends on being visible where it matters—and Baidu is where that journey begins. By partnering with iClick Interactive, your brand can gain a strategic advantage in reaching, engaging, and converting Chinese travelers through Baidu’s powerful platforms.
Contact iClick Interactive today to unlock China’s next wave of travelers.
Further Reading on Chinese Outbound Traveler Trends
Gain deeper insights into Chinese outbound travelers with iClick Interactive's research, designed to enhance digital marketing strategies in China.
- 2025 Chinese Luxury Travelers Whitepaper: In collaboration with Ctrip and a major Chinese payment brands, this whitepaper leverages exclusive data to unveil the motivations and behaviors of Chinese high-spending outbound travelers, offering insights for brands targeting this lucrative market.
- A Practical Guide to Engaging with Chinese Travelers: China Travel Retail Market Facts and Tips to Know: Travel retail marketing playbook for stakeholders, providing key insights into Chinese travel and consumption trends, along with a comprehensive overview of marketing strategies within the Chinese travel retail landscape.
- Maximize Brands’ Visibility with Baidu Map Brand Zone: Explore how to boost your China marketing with Baidu Map Brand Zone by attracting high-intent travel audiences, maximizing visibility, and driving traffic with iClick.