HANMI upbeat on CNMI’s ADS status

The Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands welcomed the Chinese government’s approval of the Commonwealth as an accredited tourist destination, saying that diversification of the islands’ tourist markets would be healthy for the industry.

HANMI president Lynn Knight said the group would like to commend those who worked for the attainment of the CNMI’s Approved Destination Status.

With the ADS approval, the CNMI may now openly advertise the islands in China as a tourist destination. The ADS is a major Chinese government incentive that guides Chinese tourists when making travel choices. Chinese tourists travel to ADS countries more easily as part of pre-organized tour groups.

“”HANMI is excited about this. We commend the people that make it happen,” Knight said.

She said, though, that individual hotel association members exercise the prerogative to make preparations for the anticipated increase in Chinese visitor arrivals if they want to market their respective facilities to the tourist group.

In a Pacific Asia Travel Association study that was presented to local industry players in December last year, PATA underscored the strong potential of China as a tourism market, citing projections that Chinese spending on travelers would reach $100 billion by 2008.

John M. Koldowski, PATA’s Strategic Intelligence Centre managing director, said in that presentation that there were more departures from China than from Japan in 2002, with more than 16 million Chinese travels outside the country recorded for the year. In 1993, Koldowski said outbound travel from China was only 3.74 million.

Compared to travel statistics in 1996, China’s outbound travel soared by 328.1 percent, while that of Japan slightly went down by one percent. “What Japan took 30 years to do, China did six years,” Koldowski said.

With a population of approximately 1.2 billion, China’s “super rich” class equates to almost 11 million people. The middle-income class, which comprises 8.1 percent of the population, earns an equivalent of from $4,000 to $12,000. In Australia, he said Chinese tourists spend an average of A$5,638 during a visit; in Singapore, S$498; in Thailand, US$610.

Koldowski also advised several tips on how to deal with Chinese tourists, considering their cultural background. Besides the need to break the language barrier by learning Chinese languages, Koldowski said tourist attractions must perform well beyond the clients’ expectations because of the importance of “word-of-mouth” in the Chinese culture.

Many Chinese love shopping and dining, he said. However, they don’t like Western food much. “For breakfast, they are more comfortable with traditional food items like congee, noodles or steamed buns.”

Koldowski also said local Chinese residents could be recruited to service the China market, noting, however, regional differences in the Asian country.

“Chinese would prefer sincere attitude rather than casual style—for example, greeting them always by last name if possible, with their title like ‘General Manager’. This shows their status and gives them ‘face,’” he said.

“The manner of the speaker is considered more important than the content, so one needs to inject sufficient flattery and protect everyone’s face. The Chinese are traditionally suspicious of ‘foreign devils’ so work hard at creating trust,” he added. (John Ravelo)