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“Looking at the pace of change in Chinese outbound tourism, it is plain to see that the old clichés about Chinese tourists no longer hold true. The most common clichés I hear are: Chinese are just like Japanese; they always travel in big groups and make lots of noise; they only want to eat Chinese food… etc.

But now, the sheer size and complexity of the market means that there is demand for almost any type of travel service, provided that you know just where to look. Chinese who can now buy luxury are educated and well traveled. By definition, those that can afford to travel internationally belong to the elite. Broadly speaking, they would prefer to be treated the same as clients from other countries while still enjoying special amenities and services afforded especially to Chinese customers. This newly updated and very much expanded China Travel Handbook of 2015 that we launch today is intended to help set into context the media hype and excitement across the industry and provide deeper insights about this market to people working in tourism, hospitality and retail sectors. Articles and reports about Chinese tourists can now be found everywhere. Reuters, Yahoo, The Economist, FT, BBC, Sky News have all interviewed me about this topic in the past and published numerous stories about the phenomenon. I’ve first written about the vast potential of the market in 2005 when I returned from 3 years of work in China. I published the China Outbound Travel Handbook 2005 as an industry primer aimed directly at incoming operators and service providers. There were 31 Million outbound trips taken by Chinese then. In the 10 years since, this number has more than tripled.

Since the summer of 2014, I, together with Sienna and with the help of my team, began updating the information and collecting new perspectives of the Chinese outbound tourism market. I contacted my network of professionals and experts from inside China and from around the world to include their unique experience and insights. In addition to the introduction and explanation of how the Chinese tourism sector actually works, the new book contains interviews and case studies from industry insiders that have many years of experience working in, and with the Chinese outbound tourism market. Each brings their own perspective to form a rounded picture of the opportunities and challenges. These include:

• Dallas Zhang, founder of Lostrip.com who worked in tourism since 1998 and was GM of Byecity, one of the earliest online travel companies.
• Arnold Ma, founder of Qumin, explains how brands should approach Chinese digital marketing and social media. Arnold is here today if you would like to ask him more questions later.
• Zhang Peng, founder of HereinUK, provides a personal account of the viral impact of social media in China, with this influential blog, Weibo and Wechat accounts.
• Delphine Lignieres, founder of China Rendezvous, has worked on luxury lifestyle events in China for 15 years.
• Wang Leilei is co-founder of Geyoo Travel, building a travel club and community and organizing travel salons in Beijing. We helped our clients Eurostar and Skyscanner sponsor some of their events last year.
• Carey Fletcher, co-founder of the China-Britain Travel Group, has been involved in China outbound tourism since 1998 and has a wealth of knowledge about Chinese business travel and delegations.
• Cindy Zhou is founder of Tong Dao, a lifestyle and travel club as well as Communications Insider, for public relations and communications based in Shanghai.
• Sylvie Chen has developed luxury tourism products for Taiwanese groups for over 10 years and is now based in Shanghai developing luxury experiences for Chinese groups and individuals.
• Zane Smith, adventure tourism and eco tourism expert from New Zealand who we have helped connect with Chinese companies and institutions to help develop eco tourism in China, talks about the growing interest in soft adventures and eco tourism.
• Andrea Plawutsky founded a company in Australia that consults tourism companies on access to Chinese tourists.
• Antonella Decandia, Italy based China expert and founder of Orientalia Lab.
• Renee Hartmann, co-founder of China Luxury Advisors based in the US.
• Vina Wei, an independent traveller from Beijing in her 30s gives her personal take on

  international travel.

• Emily Wu is interviewed on her experiences of group travel in Europe.

  I would also like to thank the following friends and colleagues for contributing their insights:

  • Sandeep Bahl, Regional GM Asia for Air New Zealand.
  • Zhang Wenjia, the very first Chief Executive of the Swiss National Tourist Board in

    Beijing.

  • Peter Xiao, MD of EETS, a tour operator taking Chinese to Central and Eastern Europe.
  • Stephen Pearce, VP of digital marketing at Tourism Vancouver.
  • Selina Guo, operations manager at Starking Tourism in UAE.
  • Anders Kristensen, GM of Albatros Travel in Beijing.”

 

By Roy Graff during the launch of China, the Future of Travel on 21st of April 2015.