Once it was assumed that when traditionally frugal Chinese
families could afford to travel the world, they would select
inexpensive routes with more overseas destinations.
But like other tourist markets, the country has a wealthy
minority that wants to enjoy more leisure or luxurious trips in
European countries since Chinese travel agencies were approved to
organize tour groups to 26 countries there on September 1.
Quite a number of the tourists are not very satisfied with
sightseeing trips that pay more attention to the number of EU
countries than the quality of the tour. The feel of these tours is
similar to tours of government officials, with cursory travel in
dozens of countries.
Yang Li, a white-collar employee of a state-owned foreign trade
company in Beijing, and her 12-year-old daughter were members of
the first Europe Tour group.
Yang hoped the journey would give her daughter a deep impression
about Europe and its culture.
"I like the leisure lifestyle and tranquil environment at a
small town in Switzerland, but the journey schedule in France and
Italy was arranged too tightly for me to enjoy local landscapes and
historical relics," Yang said.
"Next time, we will take a more relaxing way to understand local
people's daily life and visit more museums, cathedrals and other
sightseeing spots," Yang said.
As the fresh batch of visitors to EU countries, Chinese families
are now hoping travel agencies improve services, including
destination arrangements, accommodation and catering, said Li Ming,
director of the Outbound Business of China International Travel
Service, the largest travel agency in China.
In general, most of the visitors to Europe complained the food
was not enough as they prefer Chinese restaurants which did not
know how to cook food for Chinese people. At the same time, the
level of consumption in Europe is much higher than that in China,
said Beijing Morning Post.
"In September, our company organized dozens of tour groups
consisting of about 1,000 visitors. Most of them are professors,
medical doctors, businessmen and retired officials, who have not
complained about the food," Li said.
It costs between 12,000 yuan (US$1,451) and 17,000 yuan
(US$2,055) to tour Europe depending on the level of the group.
"In the?week-long National Day holidays, from October 1 to
7, we also have about 500 guests attending the Europe Tour we
prepared for them three months ago," Li said.
Because of strict and tedious formalities to get EU visas, any
Chinese travel service has to cross several official thresholds for
every tourist until to complete all the procedures.
The headache for travel services in charge of Europe tours is
that human trafficking gangs may use the tour group as a channel
for illegal entry into the continent, said Li.
If a member of the tour group stays in the EU illegally, the
embassy of EU country may penalize the travel agency that organizes
the tour. That forces the travel agency to collect deposits of
50,000 yuan (US$6,046) from each tourist to diminish its economic
losses, Li said.
In China, attitudes towards tourism have changed dramatically
from just two decades ago, when most of the population made a
living without enough to eat and wear.
Now, as Chinese citizens travel more, they are broadening not
only their minds but also the range of high-quality products or
luxury goods they come into contact with.
Usually, many foreign people finds that Chinese tourists'
favorite activity seems to be shopping once they are abroad for
most of them always worry about their family members and relatives
at home.
On the other, the reason why many Chinese people select European
Union countries as their destinations is that they hope to learn
about places where their children may get a higher education, Li
said.
These factors kindle the flames of Europe tours in some Chinese
people's heart.
And, as in the rest of China's outbound tourism market, is
causing competition among travel agencies.
"The travel services can make a profit of about 20 percent from
each tourist to Europe, much higher than those to Southeast Asia
and neighboring countries," Li said.
In the first half of this year, about 13,33 million Chinese
people traveled abroad, among which 10.57 million traveled for
private business, up 87 per cent and 136 percent over the same
period of 2003, said He Guangwei, chairman of China National
Tourism Administration (CNTA).
At present, China has signed authorized destination status (ADS)
agreements with 26 EU countries including Italy, France, Greece,
Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden,
Norway and Iceland.
"The outbound tourism to the EU will enhance friendship and
understanding between China and Europe as well as promote bilateral
exchanges in economy, trade, science and culture," He said.
Besides 26 EU members, China has signed authorized destination
status (ADS) agreements with 28 countries, including Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
Chinese tourists have more choices, and thus more interest in
travel.
A survey conducted by the World Tourism Organization shows that
China is among the top 10 countries in terms of out-of-border
tourism consumption.
From 1994 to 2003, the total number of Chinese traveling abroad
reached nearly 100 million, up almost 14 percent year-on-year.
However, inbound tourism was not as optimistic outbound tourism
between January to June this year.
During the six months, the number of overseas participants in
tour groups to China was only 1.3 million, down 15 percent over the
same period of 2002, according to the statistics from the CNTA.
The decrease was a result of fierce competition in the
international market and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) in the spring of 2003, which scared many overseas travel
agencies and tourists. Weak tourism promotion in other countries
also played a factor, said He.
(China Daily October 4, 2004)