Warc, 7 May 2014
HONG KONG: Popular international travel destinations have
been warned to brace themselves for a huge rise in the number of Chinese
tourists over the next few years.
Tourism industry observers have told the South China Morning
Post that China's increasing wealth and cultural power will lead to major
expansion, which the Chinese government is preparing for, but it's not clear
whether the rest of the world is developing the capacity to deal with the
expected numbers.
Delegates at last month's World Travel and Tourism Council
summit in Hainan were informed that Chinese outbound tourism will exceed 500m
trips in the next five years and that China will overtake the US to become the
world's largest tourism economy by 2023.
Speaking at the summit, vice-premier Wang Yang announced a
six-point plan to boost Chinese tourism, including improvements to consular protection
of Chinese citizens abroad and reciprocal negotiations to relax visa
restrictions.
A major upgrade of travel infrastructure and airport
expansion will also take place, he said, which should help to improve flight
punctuality from Beijing and other major airports.
Chen Feng, chairman of Hainan-based air transport company
HNA Group, predicted that Chinese tourism will have a huge impact on the world
and will "change the pattern of the global travel and tourism
industry".
Xiao Qianhui, general manager of the Shanghai Spring
International Travel Service Group, also agreed that tourism is still growing
despite a slowdown in the overall economy.
With the number of individual overseas trips by Chinese
travellers expected to double to 200m by 2020, according to analysis from local
researchers CLSA, it seems the question for foreign countries is whether they
will have the necessary infrastructure in place to cope with demand.
Data sourced from South China Morning Post, World Travel and
Tourism Council; additional content by Warc staff
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