CHINA: More Chinese Companies Heavily Invest In Tourism

Chinese tourists' enthusiasm for travel has spurred businesses to step up input in tourism development. The country's tourist numbers and tourism income both came out on top last year, followed by India, the US, Japan and France, the Beijing-based World Tourism Cities Federation reports.

China's domestic travel market received more than five billion visits, mostly by the Chinese, in 2017, up 12.8 percent as compared with the previous year and 69 percent with 2012, according to the former National Tourism Administration, which is now part of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Chinese tourists paid 270 million visits abroad last year, up 3.7 percent year-on-year.

In the second quarter of 2018, the overall travel intention for China is 84 percent, which shows an increase of 1.8 percent from the previous period and a year-on-year growth of 3.8 percent.

It’s expected that the travel market will receive a total of 339 million domestic tourists from the three spring vacations of the Qingming Festival, the Labor Day and the Dragon Boat Festival, according to the administration.

Tourism has contributed 9.13 trillion yuan (1.42 trillion US dollars) to China's GDP, said the administration.

The country's focus on tourism has been demonstrated by the merging of the tourism and culture authorities in March.

Seen from the long run, the Chinese market has strong competitiveness, thanks to the culture and tourism integration, said Zhao Jingwen, chairman adviser of CITIC Ltd, at a global tourism investment summit that drew more than 500 Chinese government organs, financial institutes and scenic spots in late May.

We have seen a group of big enterprises rapidly making inroads in the tourism industry, Zhao said, adding that the top five real estate businesses and nine out of the top 10 internet giants have invested in tourism.

At the forum, the Beijing-based ShanHai Cultural and Tourism Group signed a strategic agreement with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agriculture Bank of China, as well as multiple local governments and scenic spots to expand its presence in the tourism market.

The Beijing-based company has invested in a sport town in Hebei Province's Xinglong County, a natural resort in Guizhou Province's Anshun City, and a golf facility in Hainan Province's Haikou City over the years, and plans to expand its tourism business, in addition to its real estate, financial and medical involvement.

The full-on cooperation is to develop a sound industrial chain model featuring travel agency, scenic spot, hotel and transportation, says Wang Gaochao, chairman of the company.

Beijing ShanHai will invest in infrastructure, recreational equipment and hotels at various scenic spots and help to boost their publicity. The company also launched Mounsey, its travel agency, at the forum and announced a three-year plan to open 100 Mounsey subsidiaries and 10,000 brick-and-mortar retail shops to receive travelers directly across the country.

It would also make investments in 80 scenic spots, 100 hotels and 60 homestays. The goal is to integrate tourism resources and offer one-stop services to tourists, Wang explains.

ShanHai is just one of the many forces that have increased their presence in the tourism sector.

China's leading domestic theme park brand Fantawild Adventure intends to open a new theme park worth 12.8 billion yuan in Zhejiang Province's Ningbo City. The property developer Evergrande Group has planned to invest 300 billion yuan to develop 15 Children's World theme parks across China.

The State-owned Overseas Chinese Town has signed a 238-billion-yuan deal to develop culture and tourism in Shaanxi Province's capital Xi'an. Other real estate giants, such as the Hong Kong-listed Sunac and Country Garden, have all moved into the tourism development business.

In 2017, direct tourism investment broke 1.5 trillion yuan in China, and the country's 144 tourism investment funds were worth 800 billion yuan, according to the former National Tourism Administration.

More than 2,000 big-scale tourism projects are now under construction, involving more than 5 trillion yuan in investment. A total of 130 scenic spots have seen investment above 10 billion yuan each, and 45 above 20 billion yuan each.

Investment in culture and tourist towns, theme parks, ethnic and religious tourism, camp sites and those offering TV, film experiences and performances have been on the rise in recent years, supported by the country's favorable policies towards tourism investment, including those that help qualified tourism enterprises go public.

Private capital has taken an exceptional part in overall tourism industry investment, basically surpassing 50 percent, says Li Yuebo, managing director with Industrial Securities.

Private companies have put more focus on medium- and high-end travel experiences and invested more in leisure at first-tier cities, while governments and State-owned companies have put money in tourism infrastructure in the central and western parts of the country, Li says.

Speaking about future tourism development prospects, Mounsey's president Wang Tao believes the sky's the limit.

Tourism would be the next gold mine in the next dozens of years in China, after real estate and the internet, Wang says.

He mentions that Sunac's revenue was 360 billion yuan last year, and it ranks merely the fourth in the real estate industry, while the combined business of the tourism giants Ctrip and China International Travel Service Ltd amount to just 60 billion yuan.

With real estate giants flocking to the tourism industry, think about the changes they would bring.


Tourism Observer

UGANDA: First Dragon Festival In Uganda

The first ever Dragon Boat Festival held on the beach side wild life resort of Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe, Wakiso District.

Fun defined the day capped with lots of performances from different artistes, the festival, which was being held for the second time in Africa after last year’s in Egypt, had family and friends have a taste of Chinese culture with plenty of food and drinks.

Under the sunny but cool rays of the lakeside breeze, competitors rowed away on the calm waters of Lake Victoria until the later part of the evening. By 4pm the rowing had been completed and it was time for performances.

The festival, which opened as early as 8am, saw participants compete in different races with cheers from spectators vouching for their teams marooning the wildlife resort.

A dragon boat measures between 50 and 100 feet. It is made out of ordinary fishing canoes and attached with a wooden dragon head. The bow is decorated in bright colours that blend well with the theme of the day that rotates around fun and racing.

The race is mainly held with participant placed in different rows as rowers compete for the dragon cup and shield.

The festival climaxed at about 4pm with performances from Dr T, Eddy Kenzo, Phina Masanyalaze, Golden Band and Rehma Namakula.

Moses Golola famous kick boxer and athlete was in attendance with his usual antics. As usual he cheered the crowd and the rowers in the same measure making fun of not only himself but revellers as well.

Revellers toured the bird and animal sanctuary that boosts of rhinos, chimpanzees, lions, leopards, zebras, antelopes and tortoise, among others.

The sanctuary also has more than 120 bird species. There was also an interactive session as revellers ran side-by-side with two cheetahs caged on the other side of a chain link wire mesh.

The Dragon Boat Festival, which has been celebrated for more than 2,000 years in the Chinese culture, is celebrated every fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.

In the Chinese tradition, it is popularly referred to as the double fifth festival.

On the menu, there was the Zongzi dish, a popular Chinese plater that is served with rice dumplings, meat and other fillings wrapped in banana fibre leaves. It is also served with wine.

The Dragon Boat Festival, which is recognised as a traditional and statutory holiday in China, has slowly become a global event as the Chinese influence continues to dig its craws into different parts of the world.

In 2008, it was cast out to the rest of the world where it is celebrated in May and June, considering the country it finds you in.

The story in modern day China tells of the tale of the Dragon Boat Festival with claims that it commemorates the death of poet and minister Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu during the wars in the states of the Zhou Dynasty.

A cadet member of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices; however when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu, he was banished for opposing the alliance and accused of treason.

During his exile Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, but 20 years later Yang the capital of Chu was captured by Qin and in despair Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Milou River.

Miller Zhang Jiang of the University Wuhan City was part of the Chinese rowing.

He says the festival reminds the people of China the village fishermen who scattered rice across the water of the Milou River in order to appease the river dragons so that they would not devour Qu yuan.

The festival was indeed a fun-filled day climaxed by the ultimate display of the multi-cultural China-Ugandan ties.

The Duanwu Festival, also often known, especially in the West, as the Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional holiday originating in China.

It is also known as Zhongxiao Festival. The festival occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so the date of the festival varies from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. In 2016, it occurred on June 9; and in 2017, on May 30.