“In many ways, the story of Chinese tourism is the story of China. From a 3rd world country with strict control over its people and inward focus, China has become a global power, a political heavy weight and an economic miracle.
My own first encounter with China was 23 years ago, back in 1992 while backpacking in South East Asia. The first stop on that trip was Taiwan. I remember standing on a pedestrian bridge linking the rail station over a busy road and thinking to myself “My God, so many people!!!” Mainland China was even more of a shock. While I did see Chinese traveling around, in the more remote places there were mostly other Western backpackers and hardly any Chinese. Then in 2002, I was sent to China by Gulliver’s Travel Associates, a multinational wholesale tour operators that is now part of Kuoni. The Directors sent me to develop independent travel in China. While the growth I have witnessed in just three years, from 2002 to 2005, was astonishing, this pace has not let up even till now. Despite a slowdown in 2008 and 2009 as the world economic crisis took its toll, the Chinese desire to travel and the spirit of Chinese entrepreneurs ensured a steep upward curve of growth in China’s tourism and hospitality sectors. Even with the economic crisis slowing things down, average annual outbound tourism growth from China stayed an eye watering 19%!
My meetings with travel agents in 2002 involved trying to convince the agencies that the Internet was a useful tool to book travel and that booking hotels and other travel services could be profitable for them. In almost all offices, there was just one Internet connection on the manager’s computer, which was usually locked in the manager’s office. We organized seminars and training sessions to explain the value in online travel booking and encourage travel agents to adopt broadband access for all computers. Fast forward to 2015 and what a change! Constant online chatter through mobile chat apps has been accepted as integral to doing business and China is leading the world in connectivity and use of mobile smart phones. Most Chinese who work in tourism have at least 2 smart phones and provide 24-7 support to their customers.
There is no question that a new generation of Chinese travelers has embraced the Internet for their travel research and booking needs. While the share of travel transactions conducted online is still low compared to Western economies, online travel is growing at twice the pace of all travel. The leading OTAs in China are spending big to attract new customers through building loyalty and focusing on brand recognition.
Within only a few years, Europe has seen a shift in how Chinese travel that is affecting the way in which destinations must market themselves. When Europe joined the ADS agreement in 2003, the Chinese arrived in large, organized group tours that covered 10 or more countries in less than 14 days. Their daily schedule started at 6am and ended late at night, spending most of their
time on board a coach and never more than one night in the same place. After the long period in which businessmen traveled in small groups, the first ADS tours consisted of a mixed demographic and included visits to the most famous landmarks in Europe. Tourists saved on accommodation and food in order to have spare cash to spend on shopping. The reason retailers love Chinese customers is that when they travel they feel obliged to buy gifts for their relatives, friends and co- workers. Often what they buy must be unique to the place where they buy it, as another testament to their travel (apart from the ubiquitous pictures).
From 2004 until today, this trend has rapidly changed as Chinese catch up with the rest of the world in record speed. These days, the talk is of a rising consumer group consisting of self- made millionaires, and senior executives working for multinational corporations. The wealthy elite are not just men, and not just middle-aged. High-flying career women and female entrepreneurs as well as the 20-something children of senior Communist Party officials comprise this niche market for luxury travel and consumer goods. Some of the niche travel categories to emerge out of this are spiritual journeys (to Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India); adventure travel (hiking, climbing, self drive safaris, skiing); cultural travel or a combination of activities. We cover this trend in the book in more detail.
Within China itself the shift in how people travel created a boom in the construction of luxury hotels, both belonging to large chains and small boutique offerings. There has also been a massive growth in the budget hotel sector, with local and international chains scrambling to find locations in China’s booming cities. Rural retreats are opening up to offer relaxing therapies to busy business people. The trend towards more individual choices in travel is apparent in the larger cities. Those that have travelled as part of a tour group now prefer to self organize their trips with close friends or colleagues. I like to refer to the newly independent minded Chinese travellers as S.I.T (as opposed to FIT): Semi-Independent Travellers. They are not yet ready and able to plan and book the entire journey online themselves as they often rely on the travel agency for visa application and possibly flights. They may purchase a package online that includes mostly free time and then arrange activities amongst their friends before or after arriving at the destination.
Now that most countries have recognized the importance of the Chinese market, we have started seeing governments and large companies take major steps specifically to attract Chinese and encourage them to spend more in the destination. Some examples from the recent past include:
- USA began to offer 10 year multiple entry visas to Chinese and several states have
representative offices in China and retain marketing and PR agencies in China. New York State is developing multi-day itineraries especially for Chinese that is aimed at students in NY universities and their visiting friends and relatives.
- Canada has produced a promotional film and Canadian states are all investing in becoming more Chinese friendly.
- Australia is offering a 3 year multiple entry visa and investing heavily in marketing in China.
- South Korea has made access very easy with visa-free travel to many Chinese
- Britain is promoting it’s GREAT China Welcome Charter which we are involved in, to support
companies in being more welcoming to Chinese visitors. VisitBritain’s GREAT names campaign was very popular on social media, asking Chinese netizens to help give Chinese names to many popular attractions and locations in Britain.
- New Zealand hosted a famous actress who then decided to hold her wedding there, giving priceless promotion value to the country, for free.
- IHG, Hilton, Accor Hotels have all implemented various version of a Chinese-centric hospitality program that incorporates special amenities, cultural sensitivity training and marketing solutions aimed at the Chinese market.”
By Roy Graff during the launch of China, the Future of Travel on 21st of April 2015.
APR