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

CHINA: China Is Investing And Improving In Tourism Input

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 competiveness, 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, he adds.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Tourism Authority Blacklists Tourists Who Threw Hot Water And Noodles At Thai Flight Attendant

Four mainland tourists who threw hot water and noodles at a Thai flight attendant after being angered over their seating arrangement and the lack of a receipt for their purchase will be blacklisted by the tourism authority.

The Jiangsu Provincial Tourism Bureau said on Monday that they had asked the provincial tourism association to blacklist the rowdy group that disrupted the Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Nanjing last Thursday.

The bureau did not say, however, what penalties those on the blacklist were subjected to. The tour guide who led the group has also had their licence suspended for a year, the bureau said.

The announcement came after the National Tourism Administration said over the weekend that the group had “badly damaged the overall image of the Chinese people”.

The group had a series of confrontations with the budget airline’s crew members, according to passengers onboard the plane.

They were upset after being told they could not be seated together, even after a flight attendant helped to change their seats.

One male passenger later lost his temper when a crew member told him that change for his purchase – a cup of hot water – could be given only in Thai baht. He demanded his change in renminbi as well as a receipt.

When the attendant said she could not do so, the passenger berated her. His companion, a woman from Anhui, then threw the hot water and noodles at the attendant.

“The attendant burst into tears immediately,” as other passengers looked on.

The chief attendant asked the Anhui woman to apologise to the crew member or the plane would return to Bangkok, the witnesses said.

“We could feel the plane descending, but the woman passenger refused to apologise,” they said.

During the stand-off, the Anhui woman ran to the back row and knocked against window, threatening to jump out of the plane.

A video shot by a passenger onboard and aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed the woman and her companion threatening to bomb the plane.

The flight eventually returned to Bangkok and local police asked the rowdy group to disembark, while the remaining passengers went on their way and landed in Nanjing at 3am the next day – five hours later than scheduled.

The group paid 50,000 Thai baht (HK$11,800) compensation to the flight attendant and was fined 500 Thai baht.

By the time the group of four returned to Nanjing the next day, their behaviour had made headlines across the country and beyond, triggering heated discussion on social media.

The group then staged a protest upon touchdown, refusing to leave the jet bridge at the Nanjing airport unless the airline issued a statement saying that the media coverage was untruthful.

They said the crew member had been scalded by accident during a tussle, mainland media reported.

Thai AirAsia said the company would not issue any public statement acceding to the group’s request.

SWITZERLAND: Switzerland Introduces Special Buses For Chinese Tourists,

Switzerland has introduced special coaches for Chinese tourists, as locals consider them to be ‘loud’ and ‘rude’. The news has triggered mixed reactions.

According to China’s National Tourism Administration, China now sends more tourists abroad than any other country in the world. The number of Chinese outbound tourists exceeded 100 million in 2014, spending $155 billion.

Although destination countries welcome the money spent by Chinese travelers, locals often can’t stand the chaos and hassle some Chinese tourists bring to their countries. They consider them to be loud, rude, pushy, and all over the place. “They’re loud and rude, and spit on the floor.”

Such is the case in Switzerland, visited by one million Chinese tourists every year. Locals and Swiss tourists often feel harassed by the Chinese,especially on the famous Rigi Railways. Chinese tourists are said to be “loud and rude”, and they “spit on the floor”.

Their misbehavior has lead Rigi Railways to take special measures: since August there are extra trains for ‘Asian tourists’, and from September extra ones for ‘international guests’. There are also special signs on the toilet explaining tourists how (not) to use the toilet. Although Rigi Railways officially has opened extra train carriages for ‘Asian guests’, a local Swiss newspaper clearly stated they were especially meant for Chinese, its headline being: “Zu laut, zu frech – Schweiz führt Extra-Züge für Chinesen ein” (“Too Loud, Too Rude: Switzerland Introduces Extra Trains for Chinese Tourists”).

The newspaper also published one of the train’s illustrations that instruct tourists to sit on toilet seats rather than to squat on them. The railway company assumes that Chinese tourists often stand on the toilet, and don’t clean their footprints afterwards.

Once the news was posted on Sina Weibo on August 25th, it gained nearly 2000 comments in one day. The reactions were mixed. Many users consider it to be discrimination against Chinese tourists. User “Shiya” doubts Europeans can tell the differences between Asians: “They can’t distinguish the different Asians from different countries. Chinese, Japanese and Koreans probably look the same to them. Why are they so sure that the footprints are left by Chinese? The news says that the extra coaches are meant for Asians.

However, it tried to draw the public’s attention by emphasizing it is for Chinese in the title. This is discrimination.” User “Luoluo” follows: “I thought people from western countries advocate freedom and equality, and that they oppose to discrimination. But to me, this news is pure and simple discrimination. I admit that some Chinese don’t really have good manners, but it doesn’t mean we are all like that. I’m fed up that we are blamed for all the uncivilized behavior by Asians. Of course we need to stand up against misbehaviour, but we can’t endure the discrimination.”

Some users try to explain the culture of squatting on the toilet in China. Although ‘western-style’ toilets are popular in China’s bigger cities and airports, there are still lots of squatting toilets, especially in rural areas. Weibo user “JaneyPan” says that from a physiological standpoint, squatting is the best toilet position. “If you are used to squatting, you just can’t poo by sitting on the toilet. But I agree that we need to clean the footprints afterwards.” She then adds: “Maybe the Switzerland railway should consider building squatting toilets on the carriages meant for Chinese tourists.”

A large number of netizens also self-reflect, saying it is high time to promote civilized behaviour amongst Chinese travelers, and restore the country’s image. User “Beer Happiness” comments: “Many Chinese now want to travel abroad to see the world as we are getting wealthy. Yet, a small amount of Chinese tourists with low quality have damaged our nation’s image. Most foreigners haven’t been to China. They know things about China through the news.

That’s why they think all Chinese people are rude.” The Switzerland railway issue is not the first case where Chinese tourists are treated differently. Earlier this year, Mainland Chinese tourists were temporarily banned from entering the Wat Rong Khun temple, one of the top tourist destinations in Chiang Rai, Thailand, because of inappropriate toilet usage.

The temple was reopened to Chinese tourists on the condition that their tour guides would be held responsible for cleaning the toilets. As user “Xj” suggests: “The tour guide should give etiquette lessons to its clients, especially to the middle-aged tourists. They think can do anything they want because they have money. This is wrong.” The Chinese government has taken actions to stop the uncivilized behaviour of Chinese tourists abroad.

The National Tourism Administration has started to track the actions of Chinese citizens abroad since last year April. Provincial and national authorities will be in touch with unruly citizens upon their return to China. This measurement came into effect after a group of Chinese travelers scalded a flight attendant with hot water and threatened to blow up a plane from Bangkok to Nanjing.

“The saddest thing when traveling abroad is to witness the bad behaviour of our people. They really harm China’s reputation,” says user “FPA”: “I understand the intention of these foreign countries who treat Chinese tourists differently. I mean, who wants to travel with Chinese tourists who are loud, rude and fight over small things?” In the end, like a lot of other netizens, user “FPA” calls on Chinese travelers to respect the locals and their culture: “We are making progress on this. I just hope foreign countries won’t discriminate against us.”

T

CHINA: China Increases Investment In Tourism

Investment will rise to 1.2 trillion yuan, $180 billion, and revenue to 4.55 trillion yuan, China's head of the National Tourism Administration Li Jinzao said Saturday.

Chinese citizens are expected to make 4.38 billion trips for tourism within China this year, up 9.5% on 2015, and revenue from their travels will rise by 11% compared to the previous year.

A total of 263 million tourist trips are expected to be made by Chinese going abroad and foreigners coming into China in 2016, up 5%.

The sector accounted for about 10.8% of total GDP growth and 10.2% of national employment last year.