Yahoo –
AFP, Céline CORNU, 20 January 2018
 |
| Europe brings on charm and blue skies to lure Chinese tourists |
Venice
(AFP) - Chinese tourists are big spenders and with the numbers visiting Europe
set to soar by nearly 70 percent over the next five years, the countries of the
Old Continent are rolling out the red carpet to make the guests feel welcome.
A total
12.4 million Chinese, mostly in guided tour groups, came to Europe in 2017,
according to the European Travel Comission. And the Chinese Tourism Academy
(CTA) is expecting the number to reach 20.8 million by 2022.
"A few
years ago, the Chinese came to Europe solely to do some shopping. Now, they're
increasingly keen to get know the culture and the countryside," CTA
president Dai Bin told AFP, speaking in Venice, at the launch of the year of
tourism between the EU and China.
Festivals,
cooking courses... "they want to have personal experiences and visit areas
where they don't see any other Chinese," said ETC's executive director,
Eduardo Santander.
"They
like the cuisine, the music, the blue skies... most of them come from the
coast, where pollution is extremely high," Santander said.
And some
were surprised that they can "breathe without coughing," he added.
China is
the world's biggest market for foreign tourism -- with 129 million Chinese
holidaymakers travelling abroad, they account for one fifth of the total number
of tourists globally.
And they
spend more than twice the amount that, say, US tourists do -- $261 billion in
2016 compared with $123 billion.
Hot water
and credit cards
Small
gestures can go a long way towards making Chinese tourists feel more at ease in
Europe, said Jacopo Sertoli, head of Welcome Chinese, a body that awards
certificates to tourism companies catering for Chinese customers.
"You
can make them very happy by offering them a glass of hot water," he said,
noting most Chinese families drink water at that temperature rather than cold.
Chinese
language television stations and good wifi in hotel rooms are a good idea while
payment methods favoured by the Chinese, such as UnionPay, the only credit card
issuer in China, WeChatPay or Alipay are a must.
CTA chief
Dai Bin said Europe should reduce the red tape for its Chinese visitors.
"We
hope Europe will make is easier for Chinese to get a visa," he said.
"In a
number of eastern European countries, for example, it's easy. But it's very
difficult in others. And when Chinese tourists visit Europe, they want to visit
several countries, not just one," Dai Bin said.
By
reciprocation, China would become "more flexible when granting visas and
Europeans can stay in Beijing or Shanghai for 144 hours -- or six days --
without a visa," he promised.
According
to ETC data, France is the number one desired destination in Europe for Chinese
tourists, with 61 percent of visitors hoping to go there, followed by Germany
with 37 percent and Italy with 28 percent.
Nevertheless,
that picture has started to change in recent years, and travel to eastern Europe
is booming, not least because of the easier allocation of visas and the
increased availability of cheap flights. The string of terrorist attacks in
France and Germany in recent years is also a factor.
In 2016,
the number of Chinese tourists visiting Serbia, for example, rose by 173
percent, and numbers were up by nearly 90 percent in Montenegro.
But while
"the Chinese are very alert to questions of security, they tend to forget
more easily than other tourists," Santander said.
Popular for
perceivedly having deep pockets -- a result of the Chinese tradition of giving
presents -- Chinese visitors haven't always enjoyed a reputation for their
savoir-vivre.
But that's
an image which China is itself keen to remedy, with "some tourist agencies
offering lessons to customers before they go to Europe," said CTA
president Dai Bin.
