Favor Travel Service (FTS)

Join our Promotion Tour to China in October 2000!

Outbound Market China

China has been, and still is to some extent, a closed country to the West. The number of Chinese wanting to experience the West can be said to equal the number of the whole population. Hence, the market is huge. Though at present only a small percentage of the population has the economic ability to travel abroad, it is still a large enough number to quit worrying about lack of customers. According to Chinese publishings, people start to make travel plans if their yearly income reaches 1000 US$. When a yearly income of 4000 US$ is exceeded, people start to think about travelling abroad.

The number of Chinese travellers is increasing steadily. According to statistics of the National Tourism Organization of China, 6 mio. people travelled abroad in 1998. Please compare previous years' figures as below:

Taking the figures of 1995 as example, the touristic travellers make up for 45% of all people going abroad.

Major destinations for Chinese outbound travellers 1994-1996 were:

Destination	Chinese tourist arrivals			% change
Destination	1994	1995	1996	1996/95
Americas	175,498	192,062	238,947	24.4
USA	157,887	166,520	209,604	25.9
East Asia Pacific	3,383,901	4,108,342	4,654,211	13.3
Europe	491,925	578,189	552,489	-4.4
Russian Federation	328,368	390,470	349,449	-10.5
Germany	102,723	117,069	132,950	13.6
UK	19,000	31,000	31,000	0.0
Spain	13,944	14,477	15,010	3.7
Middle East	6,657	7,776	8,703	11.9
Egypt	4,292	5,930	7,001	18,1
South Asia	22,928	26,046	26,537	1,9
World	4,089,921	4,936,118	5,506,800	11.6
Source: World Tourism Organization (WTO)

The ten places in China with the most people travelling abroad are as follows:

Guangdong (accounting for 50% of all abroad travellers with an increase of 60% between 1993 and 1995),

Yunnan, Guangxi, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shanghai (increase 14% between 1993 and 1995),

Beijing (increase of 18% between 1993 and 1995) and

Zhejiang.

The place with the quickest development in the last three years is Yunnan province (figures were doubled 18 times during this period) .

While the above figures do not tell us where the travellers actually went, a statistic of Maison de la France indicates the rising number of people going to Europe: while in 1995 only 50.000 Chinese went on a touristic tour to France, it was already 100.000 in 1996. In 1997, 240.000 Chinese obtained a visa for the Schengen states, approximately 150.000 - 200.000 visited France. During the first months of 1998, there was an increase of 25% in visa applications at the French embassy in Beijing.

No wonder the Chinese outbound market for Europe is regarded as a market with high potential.

The "typical" Chinese traveller can be described as follows: He (most of the travellers still are men) tries to get something real good for his money. As Europe is far away and he might not have the chance to visit it again, he likes to see as many countries as possible on one trip. He likes tours combining business and leisure, which is partly due to travel regulations in China. He enjoys life which means that a lot of money is spent on shopping and he likes Chinese food better than any other food. His preferred destinations are capital cities and famous cities everyone has heard about in China.

Slowly, as people have the possibility to visit Europe a second or third time, they start looking for other destinations. Promotion is an important means to introduce touristic products to the Chinese market and it should not be left to Chinese travel agencies alone.

What Chinese travellers expect:

at least a 3 star hotel, the rooms should have separated beds, because most people sharing a room are neither married nor relatives; best is when your hotel provides a large lobby and is closely located to city center and nightlife can be enjoyed without discomfort;

only buffet breakfast is acceptable, preferably with some hot food like scambled eggs or sausages;

lunch and dinner should be Chinese style;

instruction in clear Chinese on the Pay Channel TV inside your hotel helps raising spending potential;

a Chinese speaking guide is an absolute must. FTS can of course provide competent guides;

enough shopping time is important;

a little adventure now and then makes the programme more attractive;

not too much culture, not too many detailed explanations unless requested;

introduction to the specific customs of the visited countries is very useful. A service we can offer in our Chinese traveller catalogue!

Tourism expenditure by Chinese travellers, 1994-97:

Figures from World Tourism Organization show that China has moved from 40th position in world ranking of expenditure in 1985 and 1990 to 22nd in 1997.

Per capita expenditure of Chinese travellers is to be considered as a vast spending potential which can not merely be traced on a single person. Many travellers represent a small group of people like relatives, friends or colleagues. On their behalf they may purchase brand products as they are too expensive in China or not available. Especially Chinese from Beijing and Shanghai areas are looking forward good shopping opportunities.

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