China's Outbound Tourists - Travel and Leisure Channel

Go West, Young Man

Outbound tourism is outstripping even the most sure predictions of a decade ago as Chinese travellers head to the furthest reaches with wanderlust in their hearts and stuffed wallets in their pockets.

?To be wise, a man should read ten thousand books and depart ten thousand miles.? Li Bai (Tang Dynasty poet)

?After hearing so noteworthy about Europe?s beauty from the TV and magazines, we saved for three years to pay for our holiday there in June this year. When we got to Paris, we were expecting something really mountainous but the hotel rooms were slight, the food was terrible quality, the people we met seemed a bit frigid and in some areas of the city, we didn?t feel very respectable.? Mr. Liu Feng of Shanghai, who went to Europe for the first time in 2005.

This reaction to Europe is not odd from Chinese tourists who are passe, in their acquire country, to high standard hotel accommodation at obscene prices, orderly and original transport systems and very shameful crime rates.

A few years ago, the number of Chinese tourists travelling abroad was so shrimp that their opinions and experiences were not taken too considerable into consideration by the industry in Europe.

Now, however, the numbers are starting to gawk impressive and early movers in the go industry in Europe are driving efforts to come by out what can be done to improve the experiences of Mr. Liu and others like him.

China is now the fastest growth market for the European move industry and with the proper reach, hotels, B&Bs, shops and attractions across Europe stand to catch vast profits from this newly opened market.

The Market

Last year, around 31 million Chinese travelled overseas. In the main, they visited other Asian destinations like Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, but two million Chinese also travelled to Europe and that figure is space to rise year on year. By 2020, Europe can request 13 million Chinese visitors annually.

proceed is particularly fashionable in China?s so called ?Golden Weeks? ? February, May and October. The working week in China is now officially puny to five days and the minimum annual leave entitlement is 14 days, giving extended holiday time.

In 2005, the proceed guide publishers Lonely Planet announced that they were to inaugurate publishing some editions of their books in Chinese in response to the increasing number of Chinese travellers. Three of the destinations for which Chinese versions of the go book are to be published are gigantic Britain, Germany and Australia.

However, it?s not all boring sailing. The European PR machine is battling some uncomfortable stereotypes when it comes to Chinese opinions of Europe and its people. ?London is foggy, Paris is expensive, Rome is dirty and Madrid is perilous? ? and these are the opinions of not only those who have not yet visited, but also those who have, as voiced in a series of consumer focus groups we conducted recently.

disappear Agencies

The overall report of the Chinese depart industry is one of robust growth driven by rising income levels, the relaxation of go restrictions and more holiday periods being made available. Only a obvious number of licensed move agencies are eligible to operate international outbound proceed services and, in 1997, there were only 67 outbound go agencies in China; by 2004, that number had risen to 528. current years have seen privatization and restructuring of the worn place owned agencies.

However, the agency market remains fragmented and there are few national players. It remains dominated by state-owned agencies, many with outdated attitudes to service. Both private and foreign capital flows to the industry are being encouraged by the Chinese government but many of the tours offered by the existing agencies are tedious in scream and style, and the reality is that the industry has a long intention to go before it genuinely services the needs of its customers.

At the moment, 90 percent of Chinese going abroad do so on group tours and the fade agencies typically salvage a commission of around 5-20 percent on the retail sign of the tour.

Independent proceed is generally not favorite and one key explanation for this is language. The Chinese education system?s emphasis on reading and writing of foreign languages leaves even those with genuine grades in English with awful communication skills. For the majority of the Chinese population, communicating in another language is simply not an option. Given that tourist literature and road and airport signs in Europe are not yet produced in Chinese, these countries are even more closed to the average tourist.

Passports & Paperwork

Traditionally, Chinese citizens have not been allowed to fade freely and have not had passports with which to do so. In the last three years, this region has changed dramatically.

After powerful negotiation, China has signed ?Approved Destination Status? (ADS) agreements with over a hundred partners including some European countries. ADS simplifies the exit scheme for Chinese tourists, allowing them to go on ordinary passports and to apply for tourist visas.

Without ADS, Chinese residents can only go on visas for business, survey or to visit relatives. With ADS, individual Chinese passport holders with financial resources have no restrictions on foreign disappear, provided they can pick up the individual visas primary for entry to the countries to which they are travelling. The only restriction is that have to depart as fraction of an official tour group and an escort must be reveal at all times that the group is overseas.

For the European countries, ADS means that countries can legally promote group leisure depart through distribution and sales channels with wholesalers and fade agents as well as advertise the destination and its products to Chinese consumers.*

History:

1983 Chinese Mainlanders first allowed to visit HK and Macao on private business
2003 Chinese citizens permitted to apply for private passports using their situation permits, offering the option of international depart to the masses
2004 Germany becomes the first EU country to welcome Chinese tourists

Facts:

? Once a passport has been obtained, Chinese citizens can apply for visas to go wherever they wish

? For ADS countries, they can apply for tourist visas and for non-ADS countries, they must come by business or visas specifically for visiting friends and relatives. (In the case of the Schengen countries, one visa allows access to all countries that are share of the Schengen agreement)

? Although free recede is allowed within destination countries once the visa has been obtained, if travelling in tour groups it is standard practice for the tour guide to beget onto the passports of all group members

? Travel agents in China that ?lose? members of their groups whilst in Europe are expeditiously blacklisted with the visa issuing operations of the Embassies and Consulates in China. The number of permanently or temporarily blacklisted ADS-approved tour operators is steadily increasing.

Shopping

Shopping constitutes another method for European businesses to rep from the increasing wealth of China and the newly granted freedoms in move. Whilst the numbers of tourists may not be high, the level of spending amongst Chinese tourists that do pick up to Europe, is.

A jog to Europe is often the first time for Chinese to proceed overseas and their spending patterns can be irrational. Some simply lift anything they can?t pick in China. The spending of Chinese tourists often doesn?t judge income levels however so looking at household income or even disposable income levels of China?s population can be misleading. Many consume mighty more than we may have predicted.

According to French tourist authorities, average visitors to France from China exhaust US$3,000 on one visit. By incompatibility, average exercise by visitors from North America and Europe stands at merely US$1,000.

Challenges

China clearly holds vast potential but for many European operators, it is proving a difficult market.

One of the ironies of the European tourism industry is that it is heavily regulated if the consumers are Europeans; but if the customers are purchasing their products outside the EU, then few regulations apply.

One factor that is helping to drive down prices is competition from creative Chinese operators based in Europe. These agents are willing to utilize informal networks of business contacts that bypass many of the normal requirements of group tourism. It is difficult for an established tour operator to compete on ticket with a China Town agency supplying a mini-bus driven by a local waiter and until the Chinese tourists themselves expect more, this area may not change. The helpful news is that we mediate Chinese tourists will be demanding worthy more very soon.

Other challenges:

-Short term bookings

-Continuous changing of programmes

-Unfair competition from exiguous cash paying agents

-From the Chinese agents a lack of plan about controls on long itineraries with regard to driving hours (There is hope that the current EU driving legislation will give all operators an even playing field to implement sensible itineraries.)

-Insufficient knowledge of Europe amongst Chinese salespeople

-Different habits and tastes of Chinese tourists (behaviour in hotels and restaurants is different to that expected in Europe)

-Lack of knowledge of European Law by the Chinese tour operators.

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