The changing Chinese tourist - Roy Graff

+Roy Graff 

More exciting and diverse, describes tourism expert Roy Graff the increasingly fragmented market of now 19 million outbound Chinese tourists. Their numbers are growing fast and allows both mass marketing and interesting niche markets to develop. The internet is a key tool to get to them. 

Roy Graff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you a media representative and do you want to talk to one of our speakers? Do drop us a line.

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Why Chinese tourists are flocking to Japan - Wei Gu

+Wei Gu 

Japan regained its top position as favorite holiday destination for Chinese tourists, after the US and Taiwan. WSJ wealth editor Wei Gu explains why the political disputes with Japan are easing down, and how the qualify of life is attracting Chinese, apart from a more favorable currency.

Wei Gu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch of fill in our speakers´request form.  

Walking routes for Chinese tourists: the Napoleon Route

Napoleon Crossing the Alps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

China´s tourists are becoming more sophisticated, and want more than the traditional landmark buildings in Europe. The Shanghai People´s Publishing House sees a trend and has started a sequel of books on walking tours. The first publication is about La Route Napoleon (ISBN 978-7-208-11518-7), the tour Napoleon Bonaparte made when he returned from expulsion into Elba and tried to reconquer France.
The route is established tour and, already before knowing the book was in production, we visited Grenoble last year and picked up some information about the route.
The book was published in June and a short survey proved a genuine interest among the more educated travelers.
"The problem for more tourists is that they would love to do something more than the traditional trips, but have almost no clue what else they can do in Europe," says one of the editors of the project. Chinese tourists who have seen all the famous landmarks in Europe are looking for new ways to spend their time, preferably also in a healthy way.
The publishing house is also looking for both government agencies, companies and others to cooperate.
One of the next projects is a book on the walking routes to Santiago de Compostela, but the production is still in a very early stage.

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Independent travelers replace tour groups - Roy Graff

+Roy Graff 

The traditional Chinese tour groups, with a flag and similar hats for all, are being replace by more independent travelers, tells China tourism expert Roy Graff in the Atlantic. "Attitudes are changing."

The Atlantic

Yet perhaps the biggest reason that more Chinese people are traveling independently abroad is that it has simply become a lot easier to obtain visas. As late as the 1980s, only Chinese people on business and official trips were permitted to travel overseas, with government approval needed for every single visit. Then, in the 1990s, the government introduced the unique Approved Destination Status System, which paved the way for group travel abroad. Soon thereafter, China’s neighbors began issuing individual “leisure visas” and visas on arrival, but most Western nations were reluctant to follow suit. 

“Consulates resisted issuing individual visas because of the perceived risk of illegal immigration. With the group visas, the tour operator could be held responsible if someone didn’t return to China,” explains Roy Graff, the managing director of the tourism consultancy China Contact. 

But with the rise of affluent Chinese tourists, attitudes are changing. 

“The watershed moment was in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. These events put the wealth of China on the global stage,” says Graff, adding that “Western countries realized that the segments of the population that can afford to travel abroad are already part of a developed economy and aren’t likely to overstay their visas and disappear.”

More in the Atlantic.

Roy Graff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

Earlier, at June 20, Roy Graff addressed at the +China Weekly Hangout the question 'what do Chinese tourists want?' He discussed the increasingly diversifying market of Chinese tourists. And yes, there is no longer one answer for basic questions. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

 

Is the banking bubble bursting?

On Monday 11 November shadow banking expert Sara Hsu will be discussing the latest developments in the +China Weekly Hangout and give her view in an upcoming hangout on what we can expect in the months to come, and hopefully has already some idea of what the Third Plenum will lead to. Broadcasting time will be 5pm CET, 11am EST and (unfortunately) midnight at Beijing time (but you can watch the session also later). Questions will be asked by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau. There will be no other guests in the hangout – unless you have some very good arguments. But questions can be asked during the event, from our event page here.

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New tourism law might hurt the middle-man - Roy Graff

+Roy Graff 

The new tourism law, aimed at protecting consumers, might hurt travel agents on the short run, but destinations can benefit, if they play their cards right, says tourism expert Roy Graff in the Travelmole.com. Independent travel is on the rise. 

Roy Graff:

The complaints by tourists about being pressured to shop, being charged unreasonable amounts for various optional activities and excursions is what led the government to enact this law. What is less easy to acknowledge is that Chinese WANT to go shopping abroad and spend more than 60% of their trip budget on shopping. This will not change because of the law, but it may lead to better choices in where and what to shop. We should not forget that the shopping business has massively contributed to this problem by offering generous commissions to tour guides and tour leaders that can earn an astute guide several times their actual salary of guiding fee. 

In the short term, we can safely assume that travel agencies in China will try to follow the law and avoid discounting the tours, writing 'free time' in the itinerary instead of 'shopping time'. When the consumers start evaluating the real cost of a tour and checking the alternatives, I believe that we will see big shift to self-organised and independent travel. This trend is already happening in SE Asia and will be speeded up thanks to this law. 

Destinations that can spot this opportunity and are able to capitalise on it quickly, will win the affections of the new breed of independent Chinese travellers. I am not speaking just about wealthy Chinese travellers or business people. The new generation of FIT are backpackers, couples, professionals in white-collar jobs. They can figure their way around in English but prefer to use Chinese where possible.

More in the Travelmole.

Roy Graff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

Last Sunday China opened its Shanghai Free Trade Zone. At the +China Weekly Hangout of October 3 we will explore some of the directions of China’s new policies, despite a huge amount of ambiguity in the current rules. You can read our initial announcement here, or register here for the event.

What do Chinese tourists want? - +China Weekly Hangout. +Roy Graff of +ChinaContact joined us on June 20 to discuss the increasingly diversifying market of Chinese tourists. And yes, there is no longer one answer for basic questions. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.

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What do Chinese tourists want? - China Weekly Hangout

Chinese tourists (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chinese tourists are a hot commodity internationally. They are spending per head more than tourists from any other country, and the growth is in the double digits. So, the question what do Chinese tourists want, is high on the agenda, for many countries and also for the +China Weekly Hangout on May 30.
According to the latest figures, Chinese went abroad in 2011 more than 70 million times (not including Hong Kong).
But getting Chinese to your country, and letting them spend their money is not that easy. Earlier this month +Simon Young told in the China Weekly Hangout his New Zealand prime minister went to China to see how to get more tourists to their country, and she is not alone. Now they would visit Australia, and add a few days on the other country.
The Schengen countries in Europe (most EU countries with the UK as notable exception) mostly offer multi-country tour packages, and seem to have an advantage for that reason. But despite their high expenditure, most Chinese tourists want the cheaper hotels and prefer an affordable Chinese restaurants, if there is no McDonald's around.
They do spend money on diamonds, luxury goods. For example the Swiss city of Luzern knows the Chinese tourist pass by to buy watches, so a day trip (longer they mostly do not want to stay) focuses on those watches. But many countries are looking for ways to let those tourist stay longer, and spend more.

At this stage about 3% of the Chinese have a passport. Does that mean that 97% is still looking for an opportunity to go abroad, and should the tourist industry focus on them. Or is it more lucrative to focus on the current 3%, who have more to spend than the remainder? Can you use the Chinese internet to get to your potential customers?

Enough issues to discuss on May 30, and to facilitate the participation from Africa (a key destination!), the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, we change our regular broadcasting hours to 10am CEST (Europe), 4pm Beijing Time, 6pm in Sydney and 8pm in Wellington. You can register here for the event.

You can leave your questions and remarks here on this blog or at our event page. During the event, you can watch the discussion on YouTube both here and on our event page. During the event, you can also leave you remarks and questions on Twitter or Google+ (add the hash tag #CWHCWH)
Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the +China Speakers Bureau. Panelists will include +Simon Young. Additional participants will be listed here as the event nears.

Below you find the initial planning meeting, where we discussed a range of issues on the agenda for the +China Weekly Hangout .

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Open office meeting - China Weekly Hangout

Barack Obama in a hangout

A set of holidays in Asia and Europe have disrupted our regular +China Weekly Hangout this week and next week.
As an alternative we will host next week, Thursday May 9, an open office session of our hangout, where you are welcome to discuss current affairs in China and offer suggestions for upcoming hangouts.

The event will be held at Thursday May 9, 10pm Beijing Time, 4pm CEST (Europe) and 10pm EST.
You can already register at our event page here. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra, president of the +China Speakers Bureau.
Until the start of the event you can also leave here or at the event page questions, remarks or additions.
During the event, we will monitor Google+ and Twitter (add hash tag #CWHCWH) for your contributions. You will be able to watch the meeting at YouTube, this page and our event page, also the recordings will be available after the event.
We also encourage you to sign up for our +China Weekly Hangout page if you have not yet done so, so you will get regular updates on our events. You can have a full overview of our previous hangouts here.


One suggestion for a future event came already from +Simon Young, residing in New Zealand, who pleaded for a change of the timing of our hangout, so participants from New Zealand and Australia, could join. We have initially planned an Aussie/New Zealand session on May 16 or 23, which will be held six hours earlier from our normal broadcasting times. So, at 4pm Beijing Time, 10am CEST (Europe) and 8pm Wellington time. (Otherwise we intend to stick mostly to our regular hours, unless Japan California report for business).
wo subjects for this Australia/New Zealand session have been suggested by Simon:  1. the Chinese influence on the dairy industry, and 2. the development of Chinese tourism in New Zealand and Australia. Depending on the participants, we will discuss both subjects, or limit ourselves to one.
Do you have hands-on experience in one of those industries and do you want to join our discussion? Do drop me a note for a possible dry test of a hangout and fine-tuning of the event.

Update: Yet another subject reached our digital radar screen. How much can you earn on a management function in China? +Richard Brubaker suggests here that at CEIBS foreign graduates still earn 30/40% than their Chinese counter parts. On Thursday, I will put the subject on the agenda, but only to narrow the subject down a bit, discuss possible experts to join and set a date.

Which reminds me, we should also plan another China Weekly Hangout on Africa, after our first well-visited session on about the advances different Chinese media groups make in Africa with veteran journalists +Eric Olander of the China Africa Project, and +Lara Farrar, previously working for both the China Daily and CNN in March.
Do join us next Thursday for our open office session.

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What do Chinese tourists want? - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

The world's tourism industry looks at Chinese tourists to offset an expected drop in visitors from Europe. But here is the dilemma, writes business analyst Shaun Rein in CNBC, talking to a hotelier in Thailand: what the Chinese tourists want is very different from what the Europeans want.

Shaun Rein:

I pressed the hotelier for his reasons. He scratched the back of his head and said, "The problem with Chinese tourists is that their wants are so different from Europeans." 

The Chinese, he said, want lively, louder environments where they can shop for Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags and eat in large groups, while European visitors prefer a more tranquil, quiet, back-to-nature kind of experience. "When too many Chinese, Indians, and Russians come and we cater to them by opening shopping centers or set up large group tables, we see a clash with what the Europeans want. The Europeans leave and look for other quieter hotels, or different locations altogether. For instance, we have seen more Europeans leaving Phuket and going to Khao Lak and Krabi and other more peaceful areas.” 

In other words, he was worried that he would lose his original core customer base by expanding it because the wants and expectations of Chinese are so different from other groups. Sharp differences in consumer wants and needs is a dilemma that everyone in the travel and leisure sector will have to handle – Chinese, Indians, and Russians are becoming the high-spenders, but how will that affect your current customer base?

For some solutions, read on in CNBC

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Shaun Rein will publish soon his book The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends that will Disrupt the World. Read more about Shaun Rein and his book at Storify.

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Qi Bao Old Street: a cultural Disneyland

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Yesterday, at a normal weekday, one of Shanghai's tourist attractions, the Qi Bao Old Street, reachable by subway no.9, was packed with people. While I felt initially a bit lost in this weird mixture of concrete, some old buildings, blaring propaganda loudhailers and occasional statue of Confucius and picture of the - still-disgraced - Lin Biao, the Chinese tourists did not seem to be bothered by this strange Disneyland of Chinese culture.
But what could attract them, I asked myself, when I wandered past the boring souvenir shops with overpriced products? I knew what they were coming for when we entered the food section of the two streets. Initially, it looked just like any food street anywhere in China, but the combination of really authentic food, in small shops for fair prices brought excitement in the thick crowds.
Even the fact that some of the shop owners had dressed up was barely noticed, as people jumped on the - indeed - delicious food. Would I advise Western tourists to take subway line 9 to visit this exhibit of pure Chinese tourism? When you are interesting in watching Chinese tourists, it is a great place. Otherw

I

ise, do not bother. They won't miss you, since there are enough Chinese tourists around.

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• Old Shanghai A-Z - Paul French (chinaherald.net)
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