2nd wave of Chinese tourists and their heavy spending attract global attention

During the recent Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day holiday in early April, Chinese travellers created a record by pushing hotel room reservations to over 90 percent in Japan, where they flooded in to see the cherry blossoms. Just less than two months ago, during the Chinese Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, a big wave of Chinese travellers had already paid this country a visit. But the main purpose then was mainly about shopping and buying goods made in Japan.

In the past two years, from the major media in America, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia, to smaller destinations around the Pacific, Chinese tourists have been one of the hottest topics. Though leaving a trail of reputations behind, the first wave of Chinese tourists who went out have clearly learned to behave. Today, the heat has not died down. But the mainstream media has turned the topic from criticism to studying how to attract more and what can be done better to achieve the goal.

“With a population of over 1.36 billion and no more than 5 percent of whom have passports, the potential for future growth is extraordinary,” as reported in a study by the Chinese International Travel Monitor 2014 released by Hotels.com. According to the study, Chinese tourists have taken over at the top of the list in terms of spending since 2012, with the continuous growth of China’s economy. Today, the second wave—with more experience, expectations, and money— is coming.

“The second wave of Chinese tourists is looking for themed tours, bespoke arrangements and activity-based trips,” therefore, according to the workshop conclusion on Chinese outbound tourism reported by 4Hoteliers.com, “tourism service providers will need to put more efforts into understanding their Chinese customers and guests” in order to satisfy the new Chinese tourist.

What is not new in this wave is that they still come with the money. In 2014, “the Chinese spent in total US$138 billion on international travel. That is more than what was spent by travelers from Germany and the United States combined,” reported by 4Hoteliers.com.

The heavy spending overseas has attracted global attention. The Wall Street Journal said that “Chinese tourists are finding an open door for their money” in its feature story of “Chinese visitors help Japan set tourism record.” According to the Japan Tourism Agency, “on top of the travel expenses, Chinese buy more than US$1,000 worth of goods on average during trips to Japan, twice as much as their nearest rivals, Russians.”

This has even made the domestic government jealous. China Daily reported of “debates among Chinese tourism officials and industry players on how to stimulate the domestic tourism sector.”

Linchi Kwok, a professor from California State Polytechnic University, particularly studied the reason why Japan is so successful in attracting Chinese tourists. In his article, “Learning from Japan to attract more Chinese tourists,” he listed efforts that Japan has done better and more compared to other countries, including massive language assistance, tax-free promotions that are tailored to Chinese tourists and discounts based on China Unionpay. In his conclusion, “referring back to the U.S., we have recently eased the visa requirements for the Chinese to visit the U.S., but we definitely have not done enough.”

However, it is better late than never. At least the U.S is working on the right track. Unfortunately, not every industry player could understand the marketing direction clearly. The CNMI is yet still struggling to bring back the Japanese who are constantly making efforts to please the Chinese. It surely takes courage to embrace the changes and creativity to compete with strong industry players in order to attract the new wave Chinese tourists. PEARL YANG (Special to the Saipan Tribune)

Pearl Yang is the assistant editor of Island Traveler. She travelled several times to Saipan for story development and interviews for the magazine. During her visit, she was impressed by the stunning views, fresh air, and warm-hearted people. “I fell in love with the exotic tropical island immediately,” she said. After writing about Saipan and translating articles of local writers for over two years to help Chinese readers understand Saipan and the CNMI, she came up of an idea: why not write something for the islanders to learn about China, the fastest growing country and the second largest economic entity in the world? After all, a country with fastest growing tourists and a travel destination must somehow create sparks between each other.