According to the Nielsen China Outbound Travel Monitor report Chinese travelers spend $2,597 to $3,506 on overseas trips, with the amount varying by region. That is serious money.

According to Neilsen, for those who hail from southern China, the average expenditure is at the bottom of the range, and only 10% opt for five-star hotels, compared with a national average of 12%.

But they travel more frequently than residents of other regions, averaging almost three trips a year, according to the survey that covered Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 23 other cities.

People from other parts of China travel less often but are willing to spend more when they do.

Travelers from north China (including Beijing) spend the most, with an average of $3,506 per trip. More than 20% of travelers from eastern China (including Shanghai) choose five-star hotels.

Grace Pan, head of travel and leisure research at Nielsen said, ‘With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, the China outbound travel market is expanding.’
Source: China View

More Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations such as Hong Kong with the appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar. For Chinese travelers, it means stronger purchasing power in the United States and other countries and regions that use US dollars or peg their currencies to it.

Since Chinese tour groups are still unable to organize trips to the US, it is destinations such as Hong Kong, with its currency pegged to the US dollar, that attract tourists from the Chinese mainland.

Guo Guang, manager with ctrip.com, an online travel service, said, ‘More people have called to inquire about our Hong Kong tour packages than usual.’

So far, the number of customers who purchased Hong Kong tour products from ctrip.com has increased by 70% year-on-year.

But outbound travel is not being seriously driven by the rise and rise of the renminbi. Dun Jidong, marketing director of the China Travel Service’s overseas tourism department, said, ‘The current yuan appreciation can only serve as an auxiliary factor to the booming outbound tourism market. If it is to prompt much more people to travel overseas, the appreciation has to be so significant that it leads to a huge drop in the price of outbound tour products.’
Source: China Daily

This is the start of a flood of extra travel. As part of efforts to boost exchanges during the upcoming Beijing Olympics this summer, the Korean government has decided to enable visa-free travel between Korea and China.

The Justice Ministry said it would begin it on a trial basis from July to September this year, as it expects that there to be a significant increase in the number of Korean and Chinese tourists visiting each other’s countries. That it is a fair judgement.
Before the visa-free program, the ministry will also grant multiple visas from late March to frequent Chinese visitors, especially businessmen and their families.

It will also provide such visas for small-scale traders and residents of 30 advanced countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Officials say the program is expected to expand later to include a wider range of beneficiaries.

Also as a response to complaints that visa-free entry procedures for Chinese student trips that were introduced last year are still inconvenient, the ministry will no longer require passport submission and English interviews for teachers, and educational groups will also no longer need to fill out a group tourist entry form.

The minimum number of people to qualify as a tourist group will be cut from five to three.

Officials say the measures are expected to attract more tourists and help boost the Korean economy.

Last year, about 920,000 Chinese visited Korea, accounting for only 2.7% of the total number of Chinese traveling overseas but

Visitors who are brave enough will be able to interact with one of the Dalek figures that roam the concourse,

Helpful, full of information and only used by people under the age of, say, 21. Older people give it a wide berth even though it is great technology.
Source: Korea.net

The Sino-U.S. memorandum of understanding (MOU) on tourism means that Chinese will be able to travel to the United States in groups on tourist visas. Currently, the United States issues only business visas to Chinese. The travel business expects a surge of travel.

A manager with China International Travel Service (CITS), China’s biggest travel service, said, ‘Everything will be in place only when we know how the MOU will be implemented. Some U.S. travel agencies are coming to us as well.’

Most travel agencies interviewed plan to promote tours linking Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and Hawaii, at an average cost of RMB25,000 yuan (US$3,351) per person.

Liu Yanwen, manager of U.S. section in China Travel Service (CTS), China’s second largest travel service, said, ‘Although very inviting, the U.S. tour will keep some potential travelers away because of the tight visa interview procedure and the comparatively high expense.’

The European Union does not require visa interviews for tourists in groups. A tour covering 12 European countries costs about RMB16,000 yuan (US$2,162).

And Liu Yanwen said the transport costs in Europe are also lower than those in the United States.

She said, ‘Many Chinese people are curious about America as they are already familiar with it through Hollywood movies. So I am quite optimistic about the U.S. travel market.’

Source: People’s Daily Online

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 ‘Golden week’ holidays should be changed. In fact, many were under the misunderstanding that a decision had been made to scrap ‘Golden week’ holidays. It would not be an unpopular decision.

According to a survey released by Ctrip and published in the Beijing News half of Chinese travelers want to abolish all ‘Golden week’ holidays, except Spring Festival.

Most wanted to retain the seven-day Spring Festival holiday when Chinese celebrate the lunar new year and which is a very important occasion of family reunion.

Ctrip is the largest consolidator of hotel accommodation and airline tickets for China’s individual travelers.

About 14% of the respondents supported scrapping all three ‘golden week’ holidays and 49.4% wanted to scrap or change the May Day and National Day ‘golden weeks’ and retain the Spring Festival holiday.
If the government scrapped one or more week-long holidays, 60.1% favored compulsory paid vacation in their place to allow every worker to arrange their own holidays.
53.3% of respondents believed the biggest advantage of the ‘golden weeks’ was ‘the right to rest and take a paid vacation’.

Paid vacation has been implemented in some joint ventures in big cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, by which workers arrange their holidays in accordance with the employer’s situation.
Source: China Daily

By 2020, China will replace traditional tourist destinations, and rank as the world’s first, according to one somewhat optimistic analysis. Others are more cautious but there is little doubt that China will, for the foreseeable future, remain permanently in the top five of world tourist destinations.

Chinese tourist officials are even more optimistic. Perhaps this massive optimism could be put down to the Olympics and Expo effect.

Shao Qiwei, director of the State Tourism Bureau and seen here, said that by as early as 2015, China will become the world’s largest country welcoming tourists, and the fourth largest source of outbound tourists.

Possibly. Perhaps. Maybe.
Source: People’s Daily Online

For outbound travel from China tackling unethical business practices is a top priority. This is true for the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), as well as for anyone who wants to effectively compete for the emerging China mega-market.

CNTA has set up a web page for consumers to register their complaints.

Nearly 900 complaints about outbound tours were logged in 2006 (78% more than 2005), and from January-June this year, Chinese travelers had logged 466 complaints.

Complaints were about shopping tours, quality standards, hidden costs, accommodation standards, shortcuts in tour programs, and surcharges for younger or older tour members.

Kate Chang of PATA said, ‘Given the growth in the number of outbound trips taken by Chinese travellers the number of complaints seems very small. However, according to Chinese culture, people do not like to complain unless it is a big deal to them.’

For destinations competing for Chinese travelers, reputation based on honesty, quality and value will be a critical factor for success. There is a very full report which you can get by clicking on Travel Daily News.
Source: Travel Daily News

A pointer to how large outbound China travel is becoming is provided by a credit card. China Union Pay, China’s own credit card, set up in 2002, is one of the fastest growing credits cards brands across the world, without any marketing campaigns about its buying power.

One reason for its massive increase is that the 34 million Chinese that traveled overseas last year all acted as unofficial brand ambassadors. In Australia, National Australia Bank has teamed with China Union Pay so that Chinese tourists can make EFTPOS purchases and ATM withdrawals with their credit and debit cards. Banks in the United States, Germany and Egypt are among the others following suit.

The travel industry worldwide sees China as the single most important development in world tourism. The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates there will be 60 million tourists from mainland China by 2010 and 100 million by 2015. On the other hand the WTO believes the 100 million figure will be reached later, in 2020. Either way it is an immense change in world tourism.

Last year, 15 countries and regions opened their doors to Chinese tourists. To date, Chinese travelers can visit 132 destinations. Among the newest to be approved are Oman, Morocco and Syria.

In a sense, everyone is trying to get into the act. Now Turkey is trying to attract tourists from China. Turkey only receives between 40,000 and 50,000 of the 132 million Chinese traveling the world each year. Even if two per cent of them went to Turkey each year they would represent half the tourist trade.

The United Arabs Emirate and China are close to signing the Approved Destination Status agreement. Under ADS, Chinese nationals will be able to obtain a single-entry visa to the UAE.

Once in full effect, it will significantly increase the opportunity, for example, for Dubai to push it’s attractiveness for tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) markets. This, of course, could be a two way traffic.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud’s Kingdom Hotel Investments earlier this year bought the Swissotel Kunshan for $58 million. This 387 rooms is new in that it only began operating two years ago. Now Kingdom Holdings has reportedly earmarked $1 billion for investment in China’s booming hotel industry.
Source: TTN