Tourism in trouble: Hong Kong demos hit economy

Yahoo – AFP, Yan ZHAO, Catherine LAI, August 11, 2019

Hong Kong is a popular tourist destination (AFP Photo/ANTHONY WALLACE)

Empty hotel rooms, struggling shops and even disruption at Disneyland: months of protests in Hong Kong have taken a major toll on the city's economy, with no end in sight.

City leader Carrie Lam has warned that the international financial hub is facing an economic crisis worse than either the 2003 SARS outbreak that paralysed Hong Kong or the 2008 financial crisis.

"The situation this time is more severe," she said. "In other words, the economic recovery will take a very long time."

The private sector, in particular the tourism industry, has begun counting the cost of more than two months of demonstrations that erupted in opposition to a bill allowing extraditions to China but have morphed into a broader pro-democracy movement.

The figures are stark: hotel occupancy rates are down "double-digit" percentages, as were visitor arrivals in July. Group tour bookings from the short-haul market have plunged up to 50 percent.

"In recent months, what has happened in Hong Kong has indeed put local people's livelihoods as well as the economy in a worrying, or even dangerous situation," warned Edward Yau, Hong Kong's secretary for commerce and economic development.

The financial hub's tourism industry says it feels under siege (AFP Photo/

Anthony WALLACE)

The city's tourism industry says it feels under siege.

"I think the situation is getting more and more serious," Jason Wong, chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, told AFP.

The impact is so bad that travel agents are considering putting staff on unpaid leave as they try to weather the storm, he warned.

Even Disneyland hit

Images of increasingly violent clashes between masked protesters and police firing tear gas in the city's streets have made global headlines, with protesters announcing new demonstrations throughout August as they press their demands.

A Hong Kong Tourism Board spokesperson told AFP that the number of forward bookings in August and September has "dropped significantly," suggesting the economic toll will linger throughout the summer season.

A string of travel warnings issued by countries including the United States, Australia and Japan is likely to compound the industry's woes.

The fall in arrivals has hurt Hong Kong's carrier Cathay Pacific, which was also forced to cancel flights this week during a general strike that caused chaos in the city.

Tourists flock to Hong Kong for its energy and urban character (AFP Photo/

Anthony WALLACE)

And even Disneyland Hong Kong has been hit, with CEO Bob Iger telling reporters: "We have seen an impact from the protests."

"There's definitely been disruption. That has impacted our visitation there."

The retail sector has also been hit by the drop in arriving visitors hunting for bargains, shops often forced to shutter during the sometimes daily protests.

Experts say the crisis is compounding the economic downturn Hong Kong was already experiencing as a result of being caught up in the US-China trade war.

It's a "double whammy," warned Stephen Innes, Managing Partner of Valour Markets."

"We always take a view that oh, this too will pass. But so far that view is not holding any water... and now it seems like every weekend we're dealing with further escalations," he told AFP.

Experts say Hong Kong's tourism crisis is compounding the economic downturn 

caused by the US-China trade war (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

'Nastier than expected'

The property market, which fell over 20 percent during the 2008 financial crash, remains strong.

But Innes warned that the deepening crisis could result in capital outflows.

"All the money from the mainland that has propped up Hong Kong property markets could reverse as quickly as it flowed in," he said.

"This is getting a little bit nastier than any of us had expected."

The economic picture for the city was far from pretty even before the protests began, with growth shrinking from 4.6 percent to 0.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter -- the worst quarterly performance in a decade.

Preliminary data suggests the second quarter fared no better, and while the government still hopes for 2-3 percent growth this year, predictions from major banks are more pessimistic.

A Hong Kong Tourism Board spokesperson said the number of bookings in 

August and September has 'dropped significantly' (AFP Photo/Anthony WALLACE)

Those falls reflect the effects of the US-China trade war on an economy that relies heavily on logistics processing and is vulnerable to a fall in trade.

The impact of the protests on growth will not be clear until later in the year, but Martin Rasmussen, China Economist at Capital Economics, said the crisis was likely to weigh heavily.

"In the beginning they were quite peaceful, you could say comparable to the protests back in 2014," he said, referring to pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in the city.

"Now they've become much more extreme, so we think the impact on the economy will begin to take its toll."

Hong Kong transport authorities approve LGBT ad after backlash

Yahoo – AFP, May 21, 2019

Campaigners have criticised Hong Kong for lagging behind on equality issues
(AFP Photo/Yan ZHAO)

A Cathay Pacific advert featuring two men holding hands can now be displayed across Hong Kong's transport network, after its reported ban sparked a public outcry.

Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported Monday that the city's airport and MTR train operator had barred the gay-friendly ad from its crowded terminals, citing sources.

The news emerged just after Taiwan's parliament legalised same-sex marriage last week in a landmark first for Asia, placing the island at the vanguard of the region's burgeoning gay rights movement.

By contrast, campaigners have criticised semi-autonomous Hong Kong for lagging behind on equality issues.

Neither Cathay Pacific nor the transport authorities directly confirmed or denied the ban which triggered a massive backlash.

LGBT group Big Love Alliance launched a campaign on Monday encouraging Hong Kongers to share on social media photos of themselves holding hands with their same-sex partners or friends at the airport or the MTR.

As public pressure mounted, airport authorities said on Tuesday the advert now had their full blessing.

The ad is deemed "not in infringement of the Airport Authority's established guidelines on advertisements displayed in the terminal", a spokesperson said in a statement.

JCDecaux, an agency that handles advertising bookings for the MTR Corporation, also appeared to have reversed course.

"We have advised... that the design can be posted at MTR stations," a JCDecaux spokeswoman in Hong Kong told AFP.

Ray Chan, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker, welcomed the move saying public and media pressure have made transport officials and their advertising agencies "right their wrong".

The city airport is operated by a Hong Kong government body, while the MTR Corporation is majority-owned by the government.

Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions and only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991.

But a British lesbian won the right to live and work in Hong Kong with her partner in a landmark ruling last year hailed by rights groups.

A separate case has been lodged by two Hong Kong men directly challenging the same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional.

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Taiwan parliament to vote on Asia's first gay marriage bill

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2019

Taiwan's top court has ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry
violates the constitution (AFP Photo/Chris STOWERS)

Taiwan will decide whether to pass Asia's first gay marriage law on Friday as conservative lawmakers launch a last-ditch attempt to scupper the bill despite a court ruling ordering same-sex marital equality.

Protesters on both sides of the debate will gather outside Taipei's parliament for what looks set to be a mammoth legislative debate over an issue that has bitterly divided the island.

Parliament is up against a ticking clock.

Taiwan's top court has ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry violates the constitution. Judges gave the government two years to make necessary changes by May 24, 2019 or see marriage equality enacted automatically.

With that deadline fast approaching, three bills have been tabled for Friday -- which also happens to be the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

The most progressive is the government's bill, the only one to use the word "marriage" and offer limited adoption rights.

Opponents warn that "forcefully" passing a gay marriage law will intensify 

tensions (AFP Photo/Daniel Shih)

It is backed -- begrudgingly -- by gay rights groups who see it as the closest thing to full equality with heterosexual couples, despite its limitations.

Opponents have tabled two other versions which avoid the word marriage, offering something closer to same-sex unions with no adoption rights.

Conservative and religious groups have been buoyed by a series of referendum wins in November, in which voters comprehensively rejected defining marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman.

President Tsai Ing-wen has said the government's bill respects both the court judgement and the referendum.

"I hope everybody can be considerate and tolerate different opinions to show Taiwan is a mature civil society that is capable of handling a divisive issue," she said on Tuesday.

Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the majority in parliament, occupying 68 out of 113 seats.

Taiwan's LGBT community has been left in limbo 

the last two years (AFP Photo/SAM YEH)

But there is no guarantee her own lawmakers will vote for the more progressive bill, especially as many fear being punished by conservative voters at the ballot box in January.

One of the rival bills was proposed by a DPP lawmaker.

Taiwan's LGBT community has been left in limbo the last two years, with many couples planning weddings ahead of the May 24th deadline but unsure of what marriage equality will look like.

"We will have a clear answer this week about how this country will treat gay couples in the future," said Jennifer Lu, a spokeswoman for Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan.

"The cabinet's bill is already a discounted version but it covers the most for now. The other bills are not only unconstitutional but discriminatory."

Opponents warn that "forcefully" passing a gay marriage law will intensify tensions.

"The cabinet's bill ignores the referendum results and that is unacceptable," said Lai Shyh-bao of the opposition Kuomintang party, who proposed one of the bills backed by conservatives.

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Abused Hong Kong maid Erwiana 'rises again'

Yahoo - AFP, Agus Purwanto, 28 September 2018

Erwiana now works on behalf of migrant workers

She was once the face of abused maids in Hong Kong -- imprisoned, starved and beaten so badly she lost control of her bodily functions.

But four years after her horrific ordeal made global headlines, Indonesian Erwiana Sulistyaningsih is a university graduate and fighting for the rights of domestic helpers in the southern Chinese city and beyond.

Erwiana completed a degree in economics this month -- the culmination of a dream that brought her to Hong Kong in 2013 before her life was turned upside down.

"Before I went to Hong Kong, I had been dreaming I could make enough money to study," the 27-year-old told AFP from her home in Indonesia's cultural capital Yogyakarta.

"After the incident, I thought I might have to give up on that dream."

Erwiana's employer Law Wan-tung was jailed after pictures of her extensive injuries went viral in 2014.

Widespread media coverage of Erwiana's torture had one unexpected benefit -- she was offered scholarships to study.

"I'm happy but it's bittersweet because even though I graduated university there are still many migrant workers who are persecuted and treated badly," she said.

She chose economics partly to understand "why so many people in this world have to migrate" for work.

"People should be able to live peacefully in their own country without having to work abroad unprotected," she said.

Erwiana plans to take that message to demonstrations outside the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Bali next month.

Erwiana's horrific ordeal made global headlines

She now works on behalf of migrant workers, including pushing for the release of former Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso who is on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling.

Most domestic workers in Hong Kong are from poor communities in Indonesia and the Philippines and are vulnerable to abuse by employers and employment agencies.

Migrants from both countries have also suffered injury -- or worse -- in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

In February, the death of a Filipina maid in Kuwait, whose body was found this year stuffed in a freezer, sparked outrage in the Philippines.

Also this year, Indonesian domestic helper Adelina Sau died in hospital after being rescued from her employer's house in Malaysia's Penang state, with wounds covering her body. Her boss was charged with murder.

It is these stories that prompted Erwiana to fight for workers' rights, and never give up on herself even when she doubted her chances.

"I never imagined I'd be here -- I almost gave up," she said.

"I was so sick, I was a failed migrant worker and my injuries were all over the media.

"But because my family and fellow migrant worker friends gave me strength, I finally had the spirit to rise again."

VIDEO: A former Indonesian domestic helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih was imprisoned, starved and beaten so badly she lost control of her bodily functions. But four years later, she now fights for the rights of domestic helpers around the world https://t.co/RYY89JL6rA pic.twitter.com/kn1yXP9R6y

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 28, 2018

Erwiana Sulistyaningsih arrives at the Wanchai Law Courts to begin giving

 evidence against her former employer who is accused of abuse and torture, in

Hong Kong on Monday. (AFP Photo/Isaac Lawrence)

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Filipina maid captures dreams through photography

Yahoo - AFP, Aaron Tam, March 22, 2015

Filipino photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani poses with her work in Macau on

March 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Aaron Tam)

Hong Kong (AFP) - From her poverty-stricken roots in a Philippine backwater, via domestic service in Hong Kong to acclaim in New York, Xyza Cruz Bacani's inspirational journey started with a camera bought with borrowed money.

The 28-year-old came to Hong Kong nine years ago to join 300,000 other women working as maids in the city, hoping to earn enough money to help fund her brother's education.

But photography has transformed her life, her images of everything from trips to the supermarket to scenes of abuse at a refuge for domestic workers earning laudatory spreads in international media and at exhibitions.

Bacani was recently named as one of the recipients of a fellowship by the Magnum Foundation, a prestigious scholarship that will allow her to study in New York for six weeks.

Filipino photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani

 poses with her work in Macau on March

21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Aaron Tam)

With that in mind, just a week ago, she quit domestic service to pursue her passion for photography. But when she first came to Hong Kong, survival was her first priority.

"The urge to survive is much bigger than the urge to do art," she told AFP in Macau where her photographs are on show as part of the city's Literary Festival.

A self-professed dreamer, she said she also saw the move to Hong Kong as an opportunity to leave her home village, nine hours' drive from the Philippine capital Manila.

"It was a big contrast when I arrived at the airport, I was very excited because everything is moving fast, and the lights are wonderful, it looks so alive compared to my village," she said.

Her passion for photography really took off four years ago, when her employer -- whom she describes as a "great lady" -- lent her the money to buy her first camera, a Nikon D90.

"When I had (the camera), I shot landscapes to flowers to (portraits of) my mom, and then I did street photography."

From that point on Bacani took photographs at every opportunity she had, whether out buying daily produce for her employer or ranging across Hong Kong on Sundays off work.

At first she only shared her pictures with friends on Facebook -- mostly shot in grainy black and white, capturing street moments in classic reportage style.

A Filipino photographer based in San Francisco saw them on Facebook and was intrigued by their originality and quality. From there she came to the attention of the New York Times Lens blog and then of acclaimed photographer Sebastiao Salgado, who praised her work at an exhibition in Hong Kong late last year.

Reflecting on her journey thus far, she marvels: "Right now it's changed my life 180 degrees, here I am having a show in Macau, going to places."

A voice for the unheard

With increasing concerns over the treatment of domestic helpers in Hong Kong and the region, Bacani is now turning to documentary photography to try to draw attention to abuses.

"That's what I want my photography to do, to be able to help people ... to me photography is a very powerful tool to change someone's perspective towards an issue," she said.

In the summer of 2014, Bacani documented migrant workers who had taken shelter at a refuge after suffering abuse at the hands of their employers, an experience she described as "life-changing".

"I was angry at first, it was a roller-coaster of emotion when I saw this kind of situation.

"I think I was there to be the voice of those domestic workers who remain unheard, whose voices have been muted."

Just last month a judge sentenced a Hong Kong woman to six years in jail for beating and starving her Indonesian maid in a case that made global headlines.

Bacani's own employer could not be more different, she says, offering support and encouragement to pursue her plans of becoming a photographer full-time.

"She said my domestic worker duties... are restricting me from growing up as a person, it's a chain that holds me," Bacani said, after stopping her domestic work last week.

Bacani's story has inspired many other helpers in the city, and she is urging them to pursue their dreams too.

"They keep on telling me... now that they've seen me, I made them realise that it's possible to do the things that you really want to do outside your job.

"I want people to see that your job, your work, it doesn't define who you are," she added.

"The dreams that I had when I was young, I'm having them now."

Three Chinese Nationals Arrested in Jakarta Could Face Death Over Meth Charges

Jakarta Globe, Mar 14, 2015

Methamphetamine and ecstasy pills confiscated by Palmerah
Sector police officers in West Jakarta, in 2012. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency, or BNN, on Friday arrested an Indonesian man and three Hong Kong nationals in front of the Mercure Hotel on Jalan Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta on charges of trafficking in crystal methamphetamine.

“The three men from Hong Kong, identified only as K.F.H, Y.W.B, and K.C.Y held Chinese passports,” BNN spokesman Sr. Cmr. Slamet Pribadi told Indonesian news website Tempo.co on Saturday.

The BNN said it found three kilograms of methamphetamine on making the arrests.  But the agency conducted a further investigation and raided an apartment at the nearby Mediterania apartments.

“We found 44 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine at the apartment room,” Slamet said.

The four suspects were being questioned and, if found guilty of violating the 2009 narcotics law, could face the death penalty.

A Little Piece of Indonesia in Hong Kong

Jakarta Globe, Antony Sutton, Feb 15, 2015

Hong Kong’s Victoria Park has become the go-to hot spot for Indonesian
domestic workers on their one day off in the week.  (JG Photos/Antony Sutton)

There are an estimated 100,000 Indonesians living and working in Hong Kong; about 80 percent are female, with many working as domestics for local families.

Their work can be varied. For some, it is taking care of children. Others find themselves taking care of older family members who need constant supervision.

Stories like Erwiana, the maid who was beaten and tortured so severely she could hardly make it to the airplane that returned her home, are not the norm but they are the ones that make the headlines.

For many, Hong Kong is a place of work; an alien landscape with an alien language. But as is the way of expatriates the world over, Indonesians find their own way of keeping close to their roots.

Hong Kong plays host to its famous Rugby 7s tournament every year. Fans come from around the world, paint their faces, wear funny costumes and do their best to drink Wanchai dry for a few days’ festivities. The fans bring a little bit of their countries with them and identify themselves by their chants and clothes.

The Indonesian community is no different. Except they express themselves on a weekly basis. Hong Kong Island becomes a little Jakarta for a day. The famous double-decker trams are filled to overflowing with the chattering mob and their one day off the leash.

Victoria Park is the de facto center of the Indonesian community on Sundays. In the same way that English football fans are notorious for taking over town centers around the world, drinking and dancing in fountains, the Indonesians, nearly all of them women, gather in the park to catch up on the latest gossip from home with their friends.

It is certainly a sight to behold. The brave ones sit out on the grass on their makeshift mats, digging into their picnic baskets and braving the heat. Others, perhaps early arrivals, find the positions with the best shade and they too dig into their food. Amid the tai chi practitioners and joggers, vendors make their way among the small pockets, flogging further little tastes of home.

On the roads surrounding the park, other women set up stalls selling favorite dishes from the home country while still more people take up residence on footbridges for their picnics and natters.

They are everywhere: under the overpass, on the road side, under the trees. Hundreds of Indonesian women turning downtown Hong Kong in to their own turf for a few short hours. And if they run out of supplies, this being Hong Kong, the island of the entrepreneur, there is an Indonesian market of course!

For some, the day begins even earlier. It’s Sunday — a party day in Wanchai. As many drunks are winding their home from their own exertions, some of the girls are about to start their own partying and they dress to kill.

I was sat in one of the pubs fairly early on and there was already one group of girls taking over one corner of the bar, laying into the beers and food. Another group came and sat at my table as I was nursing a beer and watching a rerun of English football on one of the screens.

The girls came and joined me, calling out familiarly to the lone, harried barman, “Hello my darling,” ordering their food and drinks without a glance at the menu.

More friends would arrive (“Hello sexy lady!”) and soon the table was creaking with food, smartphones and handbags. I could hardly see the game which was just as well: my team was losing.

One girl, all legs and cleavage, ordered a soup only to return it, saying it contained pork, and ordered something else.

One of the girls was Skyping her son back in Indonesia. She would hug one of her friends asking which one he would choose for a girlfriend. It was good old-fashioned banter; the kind you find in bars around the world.

It was approaching Sunday lunch time, they were half-way through their party and they were determined to make the most of the few free hours they had to be together. It was a similar tale in other bars. One had a handful of girls and they were singing along to Abba songs while a couple of nonplussed old-timers sat by the door watching the world go by.

Apparently, things get wilder in other venues. The girls I saw were rowdy but polite and respectful, although the one who offered me some of her chips did say perhaps I was correct not to take one because “you are already fat enough!”

Monday was hours away yet early evening saw many of the girls start to make their journeys home. You couldn’t help but wonder: What would their employers think if they new what the quiet, demure child minder got up to on her day off?

Like generations of expats before them, and that could mean anyone from those hoary old sea dogs who settled in Indonesia back in the 17th century to penny pinching English teachers and high-flying oil and gas types, the Indonesian in Hong Kong seeks out the familiar in their alien environment. And far from the dulling societal norms of patriarchal home, these women cut loose in any number of ways.

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Grisly Hong Kong murders spark banker backlash

Yahoo – AFP, Judy Ngao, 9 Nov 2014

Hong Kong's Wanchai district where the upmarket apartment of British expatriate 

Rurik Jutting, who has been accused of murder, is located (AFP Photo/Philippe Lopez)

Hong Kong (AFP) - The murder of two young Indonesian women in Hong Kong allegedly by a British expatriate has sparked a backlash against wealthy Western bankers accused of treating the financial hub as their own personal playground.

The victims were found mutilated in 29-year-old Rurik Jutting's upmarket apartment in Wanchai, streets away from the neon-lit bars of the neighbourhood's famous red-light district -- popular with expats and tourists at all hours.

Wanchai's neon-lit bars are popular 

with expats and tourists at all hours

(AFP Photo/Philippe Lopez)

Jutting, who has been charged with the double murder and will next appear in court Monday, was a regular on the strip, and the reported discovery of sex toys and cocaine in his apartment have added to the debauched portrayal of the former Bank of America Merrill Lynch securities trader.

The women's brutal murders and the accusations against Jutting have touched a nerve, triggering criticism of privileged foreign workers in the city's famous finance industry.

"Just like bankers anywhere, they earn top dollar without having many social responsibilities in Hong Kong," says C.H. Lo, 37, a jeweller who has lived in the city most of his life.

"Their disposable income and immoral lifestyle creates a demand for high-end drugs and prostitution.

"The Chinese believe the greatest virtue is to take care of one's own parents when they grow old. But expat bankers generally display a 'work hard, play hard' attitude."

English and Chinese language social media in Hong Kong has lit up with criticism of the behaviour of some Westerners in the wake of the killings.

The windows of the upmarket apartment

 of British expatriate Rurik Jutting, who is

 accused of murder, in Hong Kong's 

Wanchai district, pictured on November 7, 

2014 (AFP Photo/Philippe Lopez)

"A lot of losers from the West think they are God once they come to Asia. Too bad they give all western expats a bad reputation," said one response to a news story of Jutting's arrest posted online.

"Some expats get to Asia and develop a huge ego and superiority complex, thinking they are above the law, doing things they would never consider in their home countries," said another.

Foreigners also expressed fear for their own reputation.

"Agree, expats should behave better, I can feel our reputation going down year after year because of these scumbags," one post said.

Growing divide

With ongoing pro-democracy protests in the city spurred on by its increasing wealth disparity, there are also those who see well-paid bankers as part of that wider problem.

Hong Kong has one of the largest wealth gaps in the developed world, and a fifth of the population lives in poverty, according to charity Feeding Hong Kong.

"Expat bankers are overpaid and that has contributed to the wealth gap," said 31-year-old media worker Maggie Ho.

Hong Kong has one of the largest wealth

gaps in the developed world, and a fifth of the

population lives in poverty, according to

 charity Feeding Hong Kong (AFP Photo/

Dale de la Rey)

"I think locals have been rather wary of bankers following the Lehman Brothers crisis," she added, referring to the 2008 collapse of the US banking giant.

Jutting's case has also sparked an outpouring of confessional tales from those inside the industry -- stories which fuel its critics.

"The hardest thing to do is to ask corporations and people for money. That's the essence of banking. We had to entertain people a lot," one Hong Kong banker, who declined to be named, told AFP.

"Here, you have access to a broader range of prostitution and it's at a fraction of the price than in New York.

"At one bachelor party in a (hotel) penthouse suite, we would have prostitutes performing a soapy strip dance in the bathroom, while other prostitutes would be performing oral sex on the couch. That's the essence of being a trader -- it's a rock star fantasy and mentality," he said.

"I remember one banker who had so much money that at one recreational softball game, he was just handing out a lot of cocaine."

Wanchai's neon-lit bars are popular with

 expats and tourists at all hours (AFP

Photo/Philippe Lopez)

'Emotional and chemical' highs

The city offers an intoxicating new world for many young Westerners, but some are unable to handle the adjustment, said another Hong Kong banker who also did not want to be named.

"It's easy for the dorky kid in high school to suddenly find himself in the cool crowd at the hottest nightclub, and to keep this high -- emotional as well as chemical -- he's more than willing to throw his inflated disposable income at whoever can keep it going," he said.

But while there are those who go to extremes, bankers should not all be tarred with the same brush, he added.

"There are many bankers who choose not to be a complete jackass... Alcohol is the only thing I consume and in moderation."

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China desperate to improve image of its overseas tourists

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2014-05-03

Tourists pass the safety check at the Meridian Gate of the Palace Museum
in Beijing, May 1. (Photo/CNS)

With China on holiday for International Workers Day, tourist agency managers and sociologists want the country's tourists to learn to avoid embarrassing behavior.

Li Zhongguang of the China Tourism Academy believes it is time for everyone to have a global vision and think about the effects of their behavior on the world.

When the economy was still planned, travel abroad was a luxury and subject to strict government scrutiny. The chosen few who were endorsed to see the outside world were either highly educated or very successful. These people were humble in demeanor and acutely aware what were proper ways of behaving in foreign countries, Li said.

Today, lots of Chinese tourists can afford a trip overseas but their knowledge remains deficient and many are unaware, or claim to be unaware, that some of their habits are unacceptable to the locals they encounter, he said. "Chinese travelers abroad are seen as loud, rude, self-centered and lacking in self-discipline," Li said.

Zha Qizhi, deputy chief of the Sanqing Mountain resort in Jiangxi province, agrees. Tourists don't misbehave on purpose but are just unaware that their behavior is unacceptable in other countries. "Tourists traveling abroad for the first time lack cross-cultural communication skills. They assume things tolerated in China are also acceptable in other countries," Zha said.

Talking loudly in public spaces, spitting in the streets, ignoring lines and carving names on ancient monuments are just as improper in China as anywhere else, but people seem to get away with it here, he said. When you do that kind of thing in a foreign country, it is completely unacceptable.

Since the government wants to improve China's soft power and cultivate a cultured and friendly national image, Chinese tourists have become a laughing stock around the world, symbolic of the whole country, Zha added. "Chinese people are polite, hospital and thoughtful hosts, and now they need to learn to be good guests," he said.

Mass outbound tourism is still new in China. It was not until 1999 when the country enforced a seven-day National Day holiday that average members of the public started traveling on a large scale.

The purpose of enforcing the holiday was to boost tourism and consumption. Few people at that time expected the kind of engagement that the average Chinese person has with the outside world now, said Li Zhongguang.

China now has 150 countries and regions as its outbound tourism destinations. In 2013, nearly 100 million overseas trips were made. In 2014, 110 million Chinese tourist are expected to travel abroad.

With the mocking publicity given to inappropriate behavior by tourists abroad, the government and legislators are all too aware of the importance of teaching the public a lesson in manners.

Last October, the country's first tourism law came into effect, requiring tourists to observe public order and respect local cultures. In April, the China National Tourism Administration and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce jointly issued an upgraded model contract in accordance with the new tourism law. The contract stipulates for the first time that travel agencies have the right to terminate contracts if tourists are involved in illegal activities or break social ethics, no matter whether at home or abroad.

Wang Ming, manager of Jiahua Cultural International Travel Agency, welcomes the new contracts. "Tighter legislation and contracts show resolve to improve tourists' behavior but implementation is essential," he said.

Wang believes that news reports and criticism of uncivilized behavior are necessary for tourists to reflect upon their habits. "I think many more tourists have realized that the rest of the world is largely depending on them to get to know China, and they are changing," he said.

"I believe with more Chinese getting in touch with a foreign culture through travel, positive change will happen, but changing people's behavior is not an easy task," Li Zhongguang said.

The visiting mainland couple who quarreled with

 Hong Kong passersby who surrounded and

 photographed them for letting their daughter

urinate on the street. (Photo/CFP)

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