This year some 94.3 million Chinese mainlanders are expected to storm the world while their combined spending is likely to hit $117.6 billion. Dramatic is the only word that best describes this progress, remembering that the number of outbound Chinese tourists was no more than 10 million at the turn of the century. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China was already seventh in the world in 2005, in terms of international tourism expenditure, behind Italy, Japan, France, Britain, Germany, and the US. It climbed to third place by end-2011, and now occupies the peak. And, reinforcing the general belief that it's going to stay there, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said in a recent speech there would be 400 million Chinese tourists out in the world in five years.
What's causing this surge that isn't likely to abate anytime soon? A rising middle class of course, with higher disposal incomes than ever before, an inevitable result of a rapidly urbanising economy. According to one analysis, by 2020, China will have 800 more urban locations having more money to spend per capita than Shanghai. And this middle class is increasingly young, tech-savvy, with pronounced ambitions and a strong desire to modernise. Going abroad is a reflection of that desire, to absorb ideas and experiences, enrich their lifestyles, and improve their standing in the world. As a matter of fact, encouraging travels abroad appears to be part of a conscious government effort to modernise the Chinese mindset.
That seems to be the main consideration behind the Chinese State Council's new plan to boost outbound tourism even further, called Outline for National Tourism and Leisure (2013-2020). The focus of this outline is to restructure the current paid-leave system and encourage government agencies, social organisations, public institutions, and private enterprises to give their employees and workers more opportunities to travel, especially abroad. To be fully in place by 2020, the plan asks employers to make leave arrangements as flexible as possible to suit the employees' convenience.
Shopping, of course, is big on the Chinese mind and much of their travel, still, is across the border to Hong Kong, the former British colony, now a special administrative region of China. On an average, 956,000 mainlanders were said to have visited Hong Kong daily in 2012, making up a staggering 72 per cent of an estimated 39.6 million arrivals into the territory annually. But the Chinese are increasingly spreading out to other parts of the world as well.
Taiwan, for example, received 2.6 million Chinese mainlanders last year, 45 per cent more than a year ago, while 2.8 million went to Thailand (up 62.2 per cent), 2.83 million to South Korea, 1.51 million to Singapore, 1.55 million to Malaysia, 1.4 million to Vietnam, 1.43 million to Japan, 0.63 million to Australia, and 0.33 million to Cambodia. Thailand expects an influx of over 3 million Chinese tourists in 2013, and even Indonesia hopes to receive more than a million of them this year.
But it's not the Asians alone that are revving up plans to benefit from the Chinese bonanza. The Americans and Europeans are pulling up their socks, too. Big players in the West, like luxury brand stores, shopping malls, and hotel chains have begun to adapt their services for Chinese customers, using Chinese-speaking staff and providing customised products. According to a report in the Irish Times, Irish businessmen are taking courses on how to make the most of opportunities offered by the Chinese tourist market. Slumping travel budgets in Europe are forcing countries like Spain and Greece to look beyond their traditional British, Dutch, and German source markets.
For the Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Sweden, and Finland - the Chinese outbound travel market is turning out to be a must-win battle. With that purpose in mind, these countries launched a project last year, called Chinavia, to gain a deeper understanding of the Chinese travel market, the preferences of modern Chinese travellers, and figure out the gaps they've got to fill. The research threw up this significant fact: Chinese travellers account for 20 per cent of the global expenditure on tax-free shopping.
And this significant conclusion: Although tour groups still dominate Chinese outbound travel, the demands of travellers are changing. Especially, affluent travellers are unhappy with what's currently available and are looking for more in-depth and experience-based travel solutions.
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