BEIJING - Chinese
citizens made 25.76 million outbound trips in the
first 10 months of 2005, an 8.3% growth
year-on-year, according to the National Tourism
Administration (NTA). Compared with 20 years ago,
the number of citizens going abroad with a private
passport has jumped 50-fold.
"The
proportion of travelers on public duty or
commercial affairs has been declining year by
year, whereas private trips make up an
overwhelming majority," Liu Kezhi, director of the NTA's
Marketing and Communications
Department, said at a press conference. The World
Tourism Organization predicts China will become
the world's fourth-largest source of outbound
tourists by 2020, with more than 100 million
people traveling abroad each year.
What
makes Chinese tourists special is not only the
number, but also their spending. In a December
analysis, investment banking and management firm
Goldman Sachs said strong demand from China and
increased international travel by the Chinese
could combine to add US$355 billion to its
estimate of the luxury-goods industry's
medium-term revenue growth. The amount spent by
the average Chinese tourist "is already on a par
with, if not slightly higher than, that of the
Japanese", Goldman Sachs said in the report.
With growing private income and an
increasing number of overseas destinations open to
Chinese tourists, outbound travel is becoming part
of many Chinese people's lives. In 1997, when the
government approved the first batch of outbound
private travel destinations, including Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Hong Kong and Macau special
administrative regions, 5.32 million trips were
made in that year.
The number became 16.6
million in 2002, 20.22 million in 2003 (despite
the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic)
and 28.85 million in 2004, according to the NTA.
The number of approved destinations (countries and
regions) had reached 76 by the end of October
2005.
"Southeast Asia is the most popular
destination as a majority of our customers choose
to go there," said Li Weimin, press manager with
Shanghai's Spring International Travel Agency. He
attributed the boom of Southeast Asian routes to
proximity, relatively low cost, balmy coastal
weather and, in many cases, the availability of
Chinese language services. "These routes are
really hot, and it seems no matter how many
airplane seats we book, we can sell them to that
number of tourists," Li said.
According to
a survey released at the International Forum on
Chinese Outbound Tourism hosted by the Beijing Tourism
Administration in November, most Chinese outbound
tourists do not travel too far away. It said Asian
countries and regions account for 90.4% of Chinese
outbound travelers, and eight of the top 10
outbound destinations of Chinese tourists are in
Asia.
But destinations on other continents
are catching up. "There are more and more
high-income customers who have been to the Asian
destinations and are willing to see different
places," said Sun Changwei, general manager of the
outbound department of China Youth Travel Service
(CYTS). "The number of visitors to rich countries
such as Britain and Australia is on the rise, and
I think there is still big potential."
He
added that tours to new destinations contributed
significantly to the 20-30% yearly growth in
CYTS's outbound-travel business.
Coupled
with the zeal to go is the zeal to buy. According
to Global Refund, an international tax-refund
service, Chinese recorded a growth of 41% in
tax-free retail spending from January to November
2005 compared with the same period in 2003.
Germany makes up the lion's share of Chinese
tourists' shopping in Europe, as they spent about
$60 million from September 2004 to September 2005,
followed by Italy, Britain, Austria, the
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland,
Global Refund figures showed.
"We
discovered that many of our customers, after
paying for the tour package that accounts for
30-50% of their budgets, would spend most of the
money on shopping, which is quite different [from]
Western tourists' habit of spending on
accommodations and services," Sun said.
Travel professionals say there are many
reasons for the Chinese outbound tourists'
shopping sprees. "If you look at some ordinary
products in a foreign shop, you will probably find
a 'made in China' tag. There are not many things
worth buying except for those top luxury brands,"
said Liu Yang, an outbound-tour manager with the
Beijing CITIC Travel Co Ltd.
The tax
differential between buying overseas versus on the
mainland is also an incentive for Chinese tourists
who go shopping, Li noted. The price of a Louis
Vuitton purse on the mainland can be 20% higher
than in Europe and 10% higher than in Hong Kong.
Fashion accounted for 30% of Chinese
tourists' shopping expenditures in Europe,
followed by jewelry and watches, and then
souvenirs, leather products, perfumes and
cosmetics, according to a Global Refund report.
Louis Vuitton, Armani, and Zegna are the favorite
fashion brands of Chinese tourists, while Cartier
and Mont Blanc make their favorite accessories.
"To most Chinese, the chance to travel
abroad is rare, so when they get there, they want
to buy something as a memento or something they
can show off to their families and friends," said
Song Rui, a researcher on tourism with the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences. "There are business
travelers who have their accommodations paid by
others, which gives them a bigger budget to buy
things, and there are tourists who have to select
things for their friends at home."
However, some travel professionals say
they are seeing evidence that the nouveau riche
spending image of Chinese tourists is gradually
changing. "There [are] an increasing number of
customers who don't like the tours with heavy
itineraries and more and more are favoring the
ones that give them more free time to see and
taste," said Liu, of Beijing CITIC Travel.
His company recently launched a new
week-long tour of Japan offering business-class
cabins or five-star accommodations, with
arrangements of communication with local people
and no shopping recommendations. The tour costs
about $2,000, double the price of the average
sightseeing tour that does include many shopping
stops in Tokyo. The new tour is selling well, Liu
said.
"Most of those who choose it have
had many overseas experiences already and do not
care much about shopping and taking photos
anymore," he said. "They are more interested in
spending time to see the heritage thoroughly, feel
the Japanese culture and chat with local people."
Shanghai's Spring International is another
agency that is adjusting its itineraries to
changing tastes. It recently promoted a 10-day
tour to France and Italy in contrast to the
traditional European routes, which may cover seven
or eight countries in a week.
"More and
more outbound travelers don't want to travel for
travel's sake; they want more leisure and fun,"
said Li, of Spring International. "The nouveau
riche style of travel with heavy schedules and
extravagant shopping will go out of date some
day."
