We keep reporting in these pages new hotels being opened. Who will stay in them? The answer is that, according to a report issued by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the annual inbound tourist arrival in China will surpass 163 million in the next three years. (Note this is only an estimate issued by PATA although it is extremely likely to be achieved.)

The report says that China’s tourism industry recorded a staggering growth in the past two decades, and the industry is now worth more than $100 billion U.S. dollars a year and creates 90 million jobs nationwide.

Peter de Jong, PATA chief executive officer said, ‘While the overall statistics are undoubtedly impressive, maximizing tourism potential is not just about swelling numbers, but it is also about sustainability and even guaranteeing repeat traffic.’

Last year, 132 million overseas tourists visited the country so reaching the figure of 163 million is not too large a stretch to imagine.
Source: China View

True, you would not normally associate the Arabian nights with Hangzhou. Still Muslim Chinese were a strong influence in trade in Huangzhou and several relics linking China to the Arab world exist. These are featured at the Arabian Travel Market 2008. This tourism promotion of Hangzhou made it the first ever Chinese city to aggressively promote tourism within the UAE and in the Middle East.

In fact, Arabian link or no, Hangzhou is a remarkably attractive city. Marco Polo visited Hangzhou in the late 13th century and referred to the city as ‘beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world.’

He called the city Kinsay which simply means ‘capital’ in Chinese (actually Polo used a Persianized version of the word). Although he exaggerated — Marco Polo was not always a teller of the absolute truth — and said the city was over one hundred miles in diameter and had 12,000 stone bridges, still he thought the city remarkable.

He wrote: ‘The number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, was so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof.’

Which gave Li Hong, Director of Hangzhou Tourism Commission, a running start when, at the Arabian Travel Market, he urged Arab tourists to come to Hangzhou and see for themselves the Phoenix Mosque, one of four ancient Islamic mosques in China built during the Tang Dynasty between 618 and 907 A.D.

Plus the tomb of Bhatia, the Arabian scholar and doctor, who came to the capital of ancient China, Lin-an (now known as Hangzhou) in Southern Song Dynasty, fell in love with the city and settled there spreading Islam in the area dating back to as far as 800 years ago. And as an added benefit more than 700 Lanzhou hand-extended noodle shops selling halal traditional Muslim food and qualified Hangzhou cuisine.

The tourism official said that their participation in the Arabian Travel Market 2008 demonstrated their commitment to a long friendly relation with the UAE, especially Dubai.
Source: MenaFN

A survey of American travelers by AAA and GlobalInsight has some interesting findings.

China and India may see larger jumps in American visitors this summer than any other country. China may see a 13% increase, to 573,000 American visitors.

Travel to Canada and Mexico will be about the same this summer as last.
Travel to Italy should be up nearly 5%, to 1.6 million American travelers.
Travel to France should jump by nearly 7% to about 1.1 million American travelers.
Travel to Germany ought to increase by slightly more than 4%, to 724,000 American travelers.

Which goes to show that although much is made of the China travel boom the facts are it is still a long, long way behind many, more traditional tourist countries.
Source: Budget

The idea that Beijing needs to invest in cultural tourism is, on the face of it, ludicrous. Almost by definition Beijing IS cultural tourism.

However, although the city has been in a turmoil for what appears to be years as it prepares it cultural treasures for the throngs who will come to the Olympics, Beijing also plans to invest in a number of sites that are significant in the cultural tourism sector.

Ahead of the Olympic Games this year, the city will redevelop a number of popular visitor locations, including Tianning Temple.

The three major Shijingshan monuments — Charitable Temple, Fahai Temple and Cheng’en Temple — as well as Western city’s Huoshen Temple will also be given a refurbishment.

Kong Fanzhi, secretary of the Beijing Cultural Relics Bureau, said the plans represent the continuation of a trend that has been sustained in China in recent years,

People’s Daily Online reports,’In the past eight years, Beijing has improved over 139 ancient buildings and 106 recently opened sites or expanded monuments, including the Wangshou Temple, Ji Xiaolan home, and the emperors’ temple.’

This year’s development plans will deal with 31 sites across Beijing at a cost of RMB120 million across the city.

Wrong, perhaps, at the time time to suggest it, but there is a medical condition called Stendhal’s Syndrome which has been identified and has been attributed to too much culture in too small a time.

Perhaps Beijing should advertise itself as the city worth many trips.
Source: Opodo

There is a long and detailed report in 4Hoteliers dealing with economy hotels in China. It is very comprehensive and some of the facts are fascinating and surprising. For example, despite all of the activity and profitability dealt with in the report one fact stands out:

Currently, economy hotels represent just 10% of the overall hotel industry in China. Which means it has a long, long way to grow.

The report states that since the first opened in 1997, economy hotels in mainland China have spread far and wide. To a small extent his is because of tourism, both from overseas and, more importantly, domestic.

China has become an important tourism destination in Asia and the fifth-largest tourism country in the world. However, domestic tourism alone generated US$781.9 billion last year, nearly 20 times the revenue of 2000.

A study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Tourism Research Center showed that 90% of economy hotel guests are domestic travelers and 10% are inbound travelers.

This study also reported that business travelers are the major demand generators for economy hotels, representing roughly 65% of the economy hotel market in 2006.

The meeting and group contingent comprised 9% of the total, and leisure demand generated the remaining 26%.

To read this detailed and fascinating report click on Source.
Source: 4Hoteliers

The head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Shao Qiwei, pictured here, has said the country’s fast-developing tourism industry is expected to boost the hotel sector.

He said this will mean about 200,000 new hotels, resorts and guesthouses are likely to be built by 2015.

Addressing a seminar on domestic and international hotels’ groups, he said the new structures will include about 10,000 star-rated hotels. The number of five-star hotels in the country is expected to rise from 361 to 500.

Shao Qiwei said, ‘The World Tourism Organization has forecast that China will grow into a huge tourism market, and have 100 million each of inbound and outbound visitors and 2.8 billion domestic tourists by 2015.’

The booming tourism market has created the need for new hotels and other infrastructure facilities.

The general manager of Traders Hotel at China World Trade Center in Beijing, Xin Tao, said Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts plan to open five new facilities in the country this year, and at least 13 more in big cities such Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an in the near future. That is at least 40 new hotels in the country by 2011.

She said, ‘The Olympic Games has brought us unlimited business opportunities and the increase of leisure, as well as business, travel in China will add to the appeal of hotel operators.’

The CNTA has forecast that investment from home and abroad into hotels will hit RMB340 billion ($47.14 billion) between 2006 and 2010.

The hotel sector was one of the first to be opened up in China, with Jianguo Hotel in Beijing being the first foreign-invested hotel to be approved by the State Council in 1979.

Since then, 67 hotel brands of 41 international groups have entered the country and are managing 516 hotels at present.

By the end of last year there were more than 14,000 star-rated hotels, 100 times more than in 1978.
Source: China Daily

Chinese officials say they have the world’s largest domestic tourism market based upon number of travelers. And the World Trade Organization says China will probably become the number one international tourist destination by 2020.

It is interesting that although China’s attractions in China draw tourists from around the world the Chinese themselves constitute the bulk of the visitors in their own country. China’s National Tourist Office recorded more than a billion domestic travelers in 2006. That means the size of the domestic tourism industry in China has nearly doubled in this decade alone.

Chinese tourists are also seeking novel adventures. Some tourists have come to the desert on the outskirts of Dunhuang, an outpost of the ancient Silk Road. They are camel trekking, some 1800 kilometers from Beijing as shown in our illustration.

Tourist operator Zhou Haijun says more people want to feel the open spaces of nature. ‘Before, people liked comfortable conditions in hotels. Now there are more people who like to get closer to nature, get inside nature. This concept has come from people loving and caring for the environment.’
Source: Voice of America

For the first time ever, 31 leading Chinese tourism officials met with more than three dozen U.S. state tourism directors during a day long summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, to explore ways for the two countries to increase cooperation on travel-related matters.

In 2006, according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, China and the U.S. shared a total of 3.68 million visits, (this includes visitors to and from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). But with the rapidly growing exchange between the two countries in trade, culture, education and health care, tourism exchange between the both countries has a great potential and a bright future.

The summit also explored ways to improve structures between the national tourism administrations of the two countries. Efforts were made to actively explore opportunities for cooperation and exchange among the Chinese provinces and the American states.

Roger J. Dow, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Travel Industry Association and seen in our illustration, based in Washington, DC. said, ‘We can learn a lot from each other. During the next 10 years, the amount of travelers from both countries is expected to grow significantly. It makes sense that we explore ways to encourage travel to our respective countries.’

The summit was arranged by the Travel Industry Association (TIA), in conjunction with the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). The National Council of State Tourism Directors, an industry council housed within and administrated by TIA, also participated in the summit.
Source: Hospitality News

31 leading Chinese tourism officials met with more than three dozen U.S. state tourism directors during a day long summit in Charlotte, NC, to explore ways for the two countries to increase cooperation on travel-related matters.

The idea is to increase the two-way tourist traffic volume between the two countries. In 2006, China and U.S. combined reached a total of 2.35 million visits.

Efforts were made to actively explore opportunities for cooperation and exchange among the Chinese provinces and the American states.

Dr. Du Jiang, Vice Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration, led the delegation of 31 tourism directors from various provinces, municipalities and regions of China.

During the next ten years, the number of travelers from both countries is expected to grow significantly.
Source: Hotel Interactive

The number of overseas visitors to Beijing reached 3.2 million in the first nine months of this year, up 12.6% from a year earlier.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics said in a statement that the figure breaks down into 2.8 million foreign tourists, up 14%, and 400,000 tourists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 4.1%.

The United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea remain the three largest sources of overseas tourists to Beijing, with the numbers standing at 444,000, 435,000 and 341,000 respectively, up 19.4%, 22% and 7%.

It is thought that ‘Olympic factors’ have mainly boosted the tourism growth. The amount of publicity that Beijing is getting in the foreign press is unparalleled.

More visitors are expected to come to Beijing next year when the games actually happen.

According to BOCOG, which is running the games, China will host 280,000 athletes, referees, journalists and other workers from more than 200 countries and regions.

The official estimate is that about five million overseas tourists and more than 120 million domestic travelers will visit Beijing in 2008.
Source: China View