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Chinese tourists mature, clean up their act
By Wu Liming and Shang Xuqian |
June 21, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EDITOR'S note: This is the second and final part of a Xinhua story on Chinese traveling abroad.
CHINESE have been the biggest overseas shoppers in France for years.
According to a recent report published by Global Blue Group, a Switzerland-based tax-refund and shopping service provider formerly known as Global Refund Group, Chinese travelers spent 650 million euros (US$937.8 million) on duty-free shopping in France in 2010, accounting for 22 percent of the total of such spending by foreigners in France.
The average per capita spending of Chinese tourists in France was 1,300 euros (US$1,875) in 2010, much higher than that of Americans (880 euros or US$1,269) or Japanese (850 euros or US$1,226.4).
As more individual citizens are traveling abroad, the tourism model is also changing.
Wang Jia and her fiance have recently enjoyed a two-week "romance tour" in Europe. They, together with more than 30 other Chinese couples, were married at a grand Western-style wedding ceremony in the Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany.
Zhou Jianfang, who began to receive Chinese tourists in France since 1997, has noted that Chinese travelers have begun to slow down in their tours.
"In the past, Chinese tourists were running like in a military training. They wanted to see more places in a limited period of time. Now, they have begun to slow down and stay longer in one place," Zhou said.
People in the travel service industry also believe that Chinese tourists have started to change some of their notorious habits. "In the past, they would shout to each other across the street, but today they are more polite, talk quieter, and know how to carry themselves in public," said Narin Ruengwongsa of the Professional Guide Association of Thailand.
Zhou still remembered his horrible experiences with a group of Chinese tourists in a German hotel several years ago. Members of the group jostled to push buttons in a hotel lift, resulting in skin contact with a guest from another country. The Chinese were accused of harassment.
Another tourist of that same group was demanded to compensate the hotel for spilling too much water on the bathroom floor and damaging the room downstairs.
Paul Roll, managing director of the Paris Office du Tourisme et des Congres, believed that Chinese tourists will learn.
"You must not forget, when French travelers went for the first time overseas in the 1950s, they behaved just like the first-time travelers of China," he said.
"I refuse to say Chinese travelers are different from other travelers. For everyone that leaves their country for the first time, anything is a surprise," he said.
Thanks to Chinese travelers, many places which are seldom visited have now attracted large groups of Chinese tourists. It is especially true of the sites which are related to Chinese history.
For example, Karl Marx's former residence in Trier, Germany, is one of the spots where Chinese travelers must go when visiting Luxembourg and neighboring regions. Chinese tourists pour into the tiny town all year round.
At the Grand Place in downtown Brussels, Belgium, dozens of Chinese tourists were busy taking pictures in front of the cafe-restaurant where Karl Marx, together with Friedrich Engels, wrote the Communist Manifesto, a landmark document for the world's Communist movement.
New workers of the restaurant are puzzled why the Chinese visitors are so eager to visit the old and homely restaurant, but manager Antonio Lopez knew the reason and was proud of it.
"I know we are very famous in China, and each year numerous Chinese tourists visit the restaurant," Lopez said.
To cater to the Chinese tourists, Montargis, a small town some 100 kilometers to the south of Paris, designed a special tour route. It brings Chinese travelers to places where Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping and Cai Hesen used to work and live in the early 1920s.
As more and more Chinese tourists travel abroad, they will one day be like many of their foreign peers - traveling around the world with a stuffed backpack, and armed with numerous guides, not only for sightseeing, but also for local culture and customs.
(The authors are writers at Xinhua news agency.)
CHINESE have been the biggest overseas shoppers in France for years.
According to a recent report published by Global Blue Group, a Switzerland-based tax-refund and shopping service provider formerly known as Global Refund Group, Chinese travelers spent 650 million euros (US$937.8 million) on duty-free shopping in France in 2010, accounting for 22 percent of the total of such spending by foreigners in France.
The average per capita spending of Chinese tourists in France was 1,300 euros (US$1,875) in 2010, much higher than that of Americans (880 euros or US$1,269) or Japanese (850 euros or US$1,226.4).
As more individual citizens are traveling abroad, the tourism model is also changing.
Wang Jia and her fiance have recently enjoyed a two-week "romance tour" in Europe. They, together with more than 30 other Chinese couples, were married at a grand Western-style wedding ceremony in the Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany.
Zhou Jianfang, who began to receive Chinese tourists in France since 1997, has noted that Chinese travelers have begun to slow down in their tours.
"In the past, Chinese tourists were running like in a military training. They wanted to see more places in a limited period of time. Now, they have begun to slow down and stay longer in one place," Zhou said.
People in the travel service industry also believe that Chinese tourists have started to change some of their notorious habits. "In the past, they would shout to each other across the street, but today they are more polite, talk quieter, and know how to carry themselves in public," said Narin Ruengwongsa of the Professional Guide Association of Thailand.
Zhou still remembered his horrible experiences with a group of Chinese tourists in a German hotel several years ago. Members of the group jostled to push buttons in a hotel lift, resulting in skin contact with a guest from another country. The Chinese were accused of harassment.
Another tourist of that same group was demanded to compensate the hotel for spilling too much water on the bathroom floor and damaging the room downstairs.
Paul Roll, managing director of the Paris Office du Tourisme et des Congres, believed that Chinese tourists will learn.
"You must not forget, when French travelers went for the first time overseas in the 1950s, they behaved just like the first-time travelers of China," he said.
"I refuse to say Chinese travelers are different from other travelers. For everyone that leaves their country for the first time, anything is a surprise," he said.
Thanks to Chinese travelers, many places which are seldom visited have now attracted large groups of Chinese tourists. It is especially true of the sites which are related to Chinese history.
For example, Karl Marx's former residence in Trier, Germany, is one of the spots where Chinese travelers must go when visiting Luxembourg and neighboring regions. Chinese tourists pour into the tiny town all year round.
At the Grand Place in downtown Brussels, Belgium, dozens of Chinese tourists were busy taking pictures in front of the cafe-restaurant where Karl Marx, together with Friedrich Engels, wrote the Communist Manifesto, a landmark document for the world's Communist movement.
New workers of the restaurant are puzzled why the Chinese visitors are so eager to visit the old and homely restaurant, but manager Antonio Lopez knew the reason and was proud of it.
"I know we are very famous in China, and each year numerous Chinese tourists visit the restaurant," Lopez said.
To cater to the Chinese tourists, Montargis, a small town some 100 kilometers to the south of Paris, designed a special tour route. It brings Chinese travelers to places where Chinese leaders like Deng Xiaoping and Cai Hesen used to work and live in the early 1920s.
As more and more Chinese tourists travel abroad, they will one day be like many of their foreign peers - traveling around the world with a stuffed backpack, and armed with numerous guides, not only for sightseeing, but also for local culture and customs.
(The authors are writers at Xinhua news agency.)
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