Poll: Chinese tourists are sometimes rude

Japanese, Korean, Russian and other tourists in the CNMI generally find their Chinese counterparts nice but say that majority of them are also sometimes rude and do not have good manners at all, according to a poll conducted by a Northern Marianas College class.

The survey, conducted for an NMC Current Issues class handled by Sam McPhetres, covered some 111 tourist-respondents in the CNMI and focused on tourism conditions in the Commonwealth, as well as Chinese tourists. The study aimed to gain more knowledge about the Approved Destination Status that was recently granted the CNMI by the Chinese government. It tried to obtain the other tourists’ points of view of the tourism industry in relation to this new market.

Other comments of the respondents focused on the Chinese tourists’ difficulty in speaking English, resulting in misunderstandings. They also said the Chinese tourists are “very choosy but spend little.”

Some of the surveyed tourists said that their Chinese counterparts are “too loud and noisy.” They also had some comments about “body odor.”

The class said there were more comments that were not mentioned due to difficulty of translation. “Some [words and statements] were incomprehensible,” said the class.

The results of the survey were presented two weeks ago.

The group, led by class chair Zachary Berger, said the research was done over the course of one semester—approximately 16 weeks—although the first four weeks or so was allotted to planning on what and how to go about the research. Berger said the next 10 weeks was devoted to the actual research and surveying.

The study was divided into different groups. Other groups conducted surveys on the Chinese tourists themselves to get their views on why they visit the islands and the local views of residents regarding the Chinese tourists.

“I feel that this was a job very well done. My classmates decided among themselves that this was something that needed to be researched,” said Berger.

The group admitted, though, that their survey could have been improved if they had a more organized system of processing the survey, from collection to calculations to translations. The group did not indicate if they also took into consideration cultural stereotyping, which could skew the results of the survey.

McPhetres said his class decided to the conduct the study as part of their contribution to the community and for the improvement and development of tourism as one of the major economic booster for the Commonwealth.

Rep. Martin Ada attended the presentation.