For travel agencies and overseas tourism bureaus, the urge to grab Chinese travelers is just as intense as international consumer products' desire to have each of the 1.3 billion Chinese buying their products. Dollar signs appear in the minds of travel professionals when they think of planeloads of Chinese disembarking in their nations. Outbound Chinese travelers represent a very lucrative market.
I spent today at the World Travel Fair 2006 in the Shanghai Exhibition Center. With over 480 exhibitors, this is one of the larger outbound travel fairs in China and countries like Egypt, Canada, United States, Brazil, Iran, Sri Lanka, Australia, Switzerland, and Jamaica had their respective booths.
Chinese cities are preparing for the outbound tourists with more consumer-friendly enticements. The Beijing Exit Travel Contract, which was revised by the Beijing Municipal Department of Industry and Commerce and the Beijing Tourism Administration, took effect in Beijing at the end of 2005. The new contract requires that each travel agency notify tourists about the safety of their overseas trips. In particular, they need to compensate the tourists whom they transferred to another group either at the time of departure or during the trip and pay them 5% of the total travel costs for breaching the agreement.
And the China Construction Bank recently launched a business travel service called No Boundary Trip, World Class Service in cooperation with travel website eLong.com. By dialing the hotline 400-610-1010, CCB customers can enjoy a full range of travel services including hotel reservations, travel product bookings, outbound travel and RMB2 million for travel insurance.
When those tourists go overseas, they will need a guidebook. Lonely Planet and China's SDX Joint Publishing Company have entered into a publishing partnership to produce Chinese-language guidebooks. The first set of Lonely Planet guidebooks translated into simplified Chinese script will be launched in June 2006. Launch titles will include guidebooks to key outbound destinations such as Australia, Germany and Britain.
Asia is still a top spot for Chinese travelers. Singapore attracted up to 850,000 Chinese tourists in 2005. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau, mainland China provided Hong Kong with 1,141,391 arrivals in February 2006, 9.6% more than in the same month in 2005.
And Chinese are not just going to other Asian nations. The number of Chinese outbound tourists to the African continent reached 110,000 in 2005, which doubled that of the previous year, according to the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of Public Security Ministry. Currently 16 African countries have been granted the outbound destinations for Chinese tourists.
Just as the world witnessed an explosion of outbound Asian travelers in the 1980s from Japan, the next 20 years will see China rise in prominence. Along the way, travel agencies, tourism boards, hoteliers, and airlines will need to learn the ways to cater to the Chinese and how to market within China. In the future I will be sure to introduce you to some of the companies, concepts, and business strategies that are helping overseas destinations welcome Chinese to their lands.
By Danny Levinson
Publisher, ChinaHospitalityNews.com
Danny has worked in China for over 8 years and travels frequently, mostly to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. His views are his own and do not represent those of this publication, its investors, owners, or other staff. To comment on this article please email Danny at [email protected]–though he can't always promise a response, he will read all messages.