China's Domestic Tourism Booms with Expected 4.1 Bln Travelers this Year

[TaiShang]

Chinese Tourism Booms with Expected 4.1 Bln Travelers this Year
2015-07

Tourists view tulips at Qinhuang Park in Binzhou, east China's Shandong Province, April 25, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

A newly released report shows that the Chinese tourism market is expected to see 4.1 billion trips this year with a total revenue reaching over 600 billion US dollars.

Tang Xiaoyun, a researcher with the China Tourism Academy, says that short trips and domestic tours have helped to boost China's tourism economy.

"Domestic tours have made up a large part of China's tourism, while short trips to the surrounding areas on weekends, as well as other travels such as sightseeing tours have also steadily pushed the tourism economy forwards. Inbound travels will see positive growth by over four percent by the first half of this year due to booming base markets of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau."

In addition, the report also shows Chinese travelers' satisfaction has increased during the second quarter of this year, with Guang'an city in southwest China's Sichuan province topping the satisfaction list.

Li Zhongguang is head of the Industry Institute of China Tourism Academy.

"Travelers are more satisfied with the inbound destinations in China, with Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou ranked the highest among the 60 sample cities."

The report also shows that for the first time the United States has been voted the most satisfactory overseas destination for Chinese tourists.

This has a lot to do with the China-US agreement on a reciprocal 10-year visa.

@AndrewJin

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Expect as China's middle class grows that there will be less of a need/whim to go "overseas" due to amenities being brought closer to home (other than the obvious cultural and historic stuff) in a more "controlled" environment.

For instance maybe decades ago American's flew to Europe and (other than seeing the sites) they would relax in some beach resort in Monaco, France, Italy, or the Greek Isles. Cruise the Mediterranean and stop at different places. The hotels would be awesome, the views beautiful, the service first rate, and the experience a big thumbs up. This didn't go unnoticed by US businesses.

So what did they do...they threw money at some local islands in the Caribbean. Built beautiful hotels, made beaches accessible, added cruise ships, etc. They even bought entire islands and built huge resorts. They brought that experience just offshore and siphoned off that "overseas" appeal. Plus they had full control of where and how people spent their money. Of course the number of cruise ships constantly plying the waters is simply mind boggling. Even Disney has 4!

This has also been translated into other experiences.

The appeal of flying overseas for a grande vacation has turned into a big ho-hum.

Just tiny examples of the NUMEROUS places.

There's at least 7 cruise ships just in this one pic.

 

[Aepsilons]

Expect as China's middle class grows that there will be less of a need/whim to go "overseas" due to amenities being brought closer to home (other than the obvious cultural and historic stuff) in a more "controlled" environment.

For instance maybe decades ago American's flew to Europe and (other than seeing the sites) they would relax in some beach resort in Monaco, France, Italy, or the Greek Isles. Cruise the Mediterranean and stop at different places. The hotels would be awesome, the views beautiful, the service first rate, and the experience a big thumbs up. This didn't go unnoticed by US businesses.

So what did they do...they threw money at some local islands in the Caribbean. Built beautiful hotels, made beaches accessible, added cruise ships, etc. They even bought entire islands and built huge resorts. They brought that experience just offshore and siphoned off that "overseas" appeal. Plus they had full control of where and how people spent their money. Of course the number of cruise ships constantly plying the waters is simply mind boggling. Even Disney has 4!

This has also been translated into other experiences.

The appeal of flying overseas for a grande vacation has turned into a big ho-hum.

lol, but come on, man. There are some "things" that we can do in Aruba , Curacao that we can't "do" in say Monaco.

ehem.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

lol, but come on, man. There are some "things" that we can do in Aruba , Curacao that we can't "do" in say Monaco.

ehem.

Let's keep it family orientated...actually I may challenge you even on that! Keep in mind Americans are far more conservative than Europeans. Plus lot's of stuff that are illegal over here is very legal over there.

Monaco

Aruba

 

[Edison Chen]

Keep in mind Americans are far more conservative than Europeans.

This is contrary to the impression of Chinese in China. Many Chinese think the Americans' life is totally a mess, hanging out in the bar till late night, crazy car racing on the road or party party party....And according to my experience, this is not true. Normal Americans are more family oriented, after work they usually come home and spend more time with families. My experience could be not accurate, since I didn't spend too much time there. And most Chinese think Europeans are more conservative and rigorous or serious about anything, especially Germans or British, is that true?

@Nihonjin1051 @LeveragedBuyout Would you mind sharing your experiences?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

This is contrary to the impression of Chinese in China. Many Chinese think the Americans' life is totally a mess, hanging out in the bar till late night, crazy car racing on the road or party party party....And according to my experience, this is not true. Normal Americans are more family oriented, after work they usually come home and spend more time with families. My experience could be not accurate, since I didn't spend too much time there. And most Chinese think Europeans are more conservative and rigorous or serious about anything, especially Germans or British, is that true?

@Nihonjin1051 @LeveragedBuyout Would you mind sharing your experiences?

I think by the time you get a real job the partying is over.
As for racing well I used to own a car that looked similar to this:

So I plead guilty. When my wife and I had kids the car was sold. Can't have daddy wrap himself around a tree.

As for conservatism...put it this way...even Americans cringe at Canadians.
They have coin operated XXX rated peep shows in the basements of video arcades. That would be scandalous here. Oh and in 2014 they finally started making Prostitution illegal...and by starting I mean...well its criminal to buy but not to sell.

 

[AndrewJin]

Yep, really booming.

I have left Chengdu at noon, now on my way to Xichang along the epic transport project Ya'an-Xichang expressway (part of the G5 Beijing-Kunming national expressway). The whole journey is like flying in the cloud, several hundred meters above misty valleys. The new expressway makes it possible to travel from the provincial capital city's to the remote mountainous region within 5 hours(450km) from probably a whole day of dangerous zigzag road a couple of years ago.

From my own experience, the traveling need was suppressed due to lack of infra especially in where the most gorgeous scenery is located. Tourism provides millions of jobs. It's economically and environmentally infeasible to transfer labour intensive industries to these regions. I have already seen how tourism successfully changed everybody's life in Dali, Lijiang, Enshi, etc. Independent travelers like me will spend a lot in local family guesthouses, restaurants, handicraft shops, etc.

The road trip by coach on the expressway is such s pleasure, not just the road itself, but the beautiful new countryside and towns, high voltage transmission over the mountain pass and solar water heaters on every roof.

When I settled down in Xichang, let me share with you more.
One of chengdu's coach terminals

10-km long tunnel

Once a vehicle loses control...

 

[TaiShang]

From my own experience, the traveling need was suppressed due to lack of infra especially in where the most gorgeous scenery is located. Tourism provides millions of jobs. It's economically and environmentally infeasible to transfer labour intensive industries to these regions. I have already seen how tourism successfully changed everybody's life in Dali, Lijiang, Enshi, etc. Independent travelers like me will spend a lot in local family guesthouses, restaurants, handicraft shops, etc.

Exactly, improved infrastructure, ease of mobility and services are likely to lead to a domestic tourism boom, early sign of which we are seeing. China is diverse and big, and probably people are just starting to discover so many things that were so close yet so far.

 

[AndrewJin]

Exactly, improved infrastructure, ease of mobility and services are likely to lead to a domestic tourism boom, early sign of which we are seeing. China is diverse and big, and probably people are just starting to discover so many things that were so close yet so far.

arrive in Xichang, what a sunny city!

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

This is contrary to the impression of Chinese in China. Many Chinese think the Americans' life is totally a mess, hanging out in the bar till late night, crazy car racing on the road or party party party....And according to my experience, this is not true. Normal Americans are more family oriented, after work they usually come home and spend more time with families. My experience could be not accurate, since I didn't spend too much time there. And most Chinese think Europeans are more conservative and rigorous or serious about anything, especially Germans or British, is that true?

@Nihonjin1051 @LeveragedBuyout Would you mind sharing your experiences?

While generalizing is always a dangerous action, I think that your experiences are more true-to-life than the European stereotype of the United States. I'm sure you've seen charts like this before:

Most European countries work far less than the US. I would say that even beyond the quantitative analysis, the qualitative factors are salient: the US provides incentives for hard work with a low tax rate and relatively ungenerous welfare system compared to Europe, so at the cultural level, the US emphasizes work more than the Europeans do. It's always puzzled me how Europeans reconcile to themselves their constant attempts to restrict the number of hours that can be worked per week, their constantly striking unions, their high wages and social benefits (resulting in much higher unemployment rates than in the US), their low GDP growth rates, and their unimpressive universities with their self-image as superior to Americans.

We work harder, we get paid more, our economy has been growing faster for decades, our universities educate the world, our financial center is the most powerful in the world, our Silicon Valley drives technological innovation, and our multi-national corporations dominate global commerce. How is this possible for a drunk, lazy, stupid country?

Regarding the culture, Hollywood has an outsize influence on how the world sees us (car racing, sex, drugs), but the United States is far more conservative culturally than Europe. We are more religious, we frown on public nudity, we have laws that are far more stringent concerning the age of consent for sex, and we try to restrict the use of drugs and alcohol in ways that Europe does not. It's true that we have higher divorce rates than most others, but that's partly because we have much higher rates of marriage than most others:

Despite the stereotype, we are also not an outlier in terms of out-of-wedlock births:

Overall, we have a much stronger emphasis on family and household formation than Europe, but there really are two Americas in this sense (Charles Murray explored this in depth in his book "Coming Apart" to describe the process by which American society is stratifying by values and education, with the new upper class retaining a strong work ethic, family orientation, religious attachment, etc. and the new lower class doing the opposite).

In any case, it's too complicated to reduce to generalizations, since there is massive variation within each country, and speaking of averages obscures this fact.

Regarding your last point about Chinese perceptions of Germans and Brits, I wasn't sure if you meant vs. other Europeans, or vs. Americans. From personal experience, I can definitively tell you that bankers on Wall Street work much, much harder than our counterparts in The City (London), but I would never claim that one should extrapolate from that a view on entire countries.

At the end of the day, we each have our own culture. Let's embrace what works for each of us. Americans are thick-skinned enough to shrug off the tiresome mudslinging of "sophisticated" Europeans, but if it makes them feel better to condescend towards us while we dominate economically and our culture is embraced by the world, we're willing to live with that.

 

[Edison Chen]

Very nice analysis! I have to reply to you late after work, since the computers in my company don't have permission to get to the external websites. It's surprising that Japan even ranks below US and some European countries.

Most European countries work far less than the US. I would say that even beyond the quantitative analysis, the qualitative factors are salient: the US provides incentives for hard work with a low tax rate and relatively ungenerous welfare system compared to Europe, so at the cultural level, the US emphasizes work more than the Europeans do. It's always puzzled me how Europeans reconcile to themselves their constant attempts to restrict the number of hours that can be worked per week, their constantly striking unions, their high wages and social benefits (resulting in much higher unemployment rates than in the US), their low GDP growth rates, and their unimpressive universities with their self-image as superior to Americans.

We work harder, we get paid more, our economy has been growing faster for decades, our universities educate the world, our financial center is the most powerful in the world, our Silicon Valley drives technological innovation, and our multi-national corporations dominate global commerce. How is this possible for a drunk, lazy, stupid country?

I think the European countries are just killing themselves by imposing high tax rate to the elite and rich, to force them away to other countries, while feeding a bunch of lazy drunk wanderer who can do no contribution to the country. Once the rich class left, the economy backbone is gone, the bottom class will be poorer. The high wages and social benefits can't last long. US has good wages and social benefits standard, maybe lower than the European countries, but this is incentives and opportunities, that's why immigrant go to the US rather than EU for a better living.

Regarding the culture, Hollywood has an outsize influence on how the world sees us (car racing, sex, drugs), but the United States is far more conservative culturally than Europe. We are more religious, we frown on public nudity, we have laws that are far more stringent concerning the age of consent for sex, and we try to restrict the use of drugs and alcohol in ways that Europe does not. It's true that we have higher divorce rates than most others, but that's partly because we have much higher rates of marriage than most others:

exactly what I mean. The U.S. is free, but not free for anything, if any people can do anything they want, this is a lawless country, a banana republic. In an ideal system, the law protects people's reasonable right, so people abide by the law by making contributions to the country and not hurting other's interest.

Regarding your last point about Chinese perceptions of Germans and Brits, I wasn't sure if you meant vs. other Europeans, or vs. Americans. From personal experience, I can definitively tell you that bankers on Wall Street work much, much harder than our counterparts in The City (London), but I would never claim that one should extrapolate from that a view on entire countries.

At the end of the day, we each have our own culture. Let's embrace what works for each of us. Americans are thick-skinned enough to shrug off the tiresome mudslinging of "sophisticated" Europeans, but if it makes them feel better to condescend towards us while we dominate economically and our culture is embraced by the world, we're willing to live with that.

In Chinese mind, Europeans are more classy, gentleman-like, cool and have more royal blue blood. Many Chinese think the Europeans are more fashionable because they have luxury brands, while Americans only have Levi's and other low end fashion things. LOL, this is....

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

In Chinese mind, Europeans are more classy, gentleman-like, cool and have more royal blue blood. Many Chinese think the Europeans are more fashionable because they have luxury brands, while Americans only have Levi's and other low end fashion things. LOL, this is....

That's because most Americans (obviously not all) have gotten past the phase of "showing off" their wealth with clothes.

He didn't start a trend. Most American's simply dress casually. We are a casual nation.

A non-American commenting on it:
Style - Bangs & a Bun - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog | www.bangsandabun.com

"One of the most popular posts I’ve written on this site was one I did a couple of years ago about how Europeans dress better than Americans. It seems to be something people Google a lot: ‘why do Europeans dress better than Americans?’ Or ‘Americans dress lazy’ or other such terms often lead to that blog post and it still gets people leaving comments on it. It’s a weird topic. The comments section is filled with smug Europeans or angry Americans talking about how judgmental I am or how Europeans are either gay or have really poor hygiene, which has nothing to do with anything. Admittedly, the style in which I wrote that post was pretty harsh, but has my viewpoint changed? Do I still believe Europeans dress better than Americans?
........
A couple of years on from that original post, I’m not sure it’s as black and white as it once was. I’d say in broad strokes, yes, the original points I made in that post still ring true; North American fashion is all about ‘casual comfort’, they lack good tailoring and it seems most people aren’t concerned so much with what styles and fit actually suit them, as much as they are with convenience.

Interestingly, in the original post I wrote on this, the American commenters seemed to take a stance of how vain it was of me to even bring this up, how no one really cares what they wear and it doesn’t matter. That remains a complete non-argument to me and a downright ridiculous thing to say. You care, everybody cares about how they look. What you wear, how you choose to present yourself is part of an artistic expression of who you are – it matters. I understand not everyone is going to keep up with trends, but saying you don’t care is not realistic and quite simply, not true. And if you don’t, you should – you should absolutely take some pride, time and consideration about how you put yourself together. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.

........

-------------------------------------------------------
Most Americans look at the tags of clothes and say "Dry clean only...bah! forget it"..or "hmm...this is wrinkle free...awesome!".

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

Very nice analysis! I have to reply to you late after work, since the computers in my company don't have permission to get to the external websites. It's surprising that Japan even ranks below US and some European countries.

It's even worse than that when one starts to dig into the productivity numbers, but enough beating up on Japan.

I think the European countries are just killing themselves by imposing high tax rate to the elite and rich, to force them away to other countries, while feeding a bunch of lazy drunk wanderer who can do no contribution to the country. Once the rich class left, the economy backbone is gone, the bottom class will be poorer. The high wages and social benefits can't last long. US has good wages and social benefits standard, maybe lower than the European countries, but this is incentives and opportunities, that's why immigrant go to the US rather than EU for a better living.

Agreed. This chart demonstrates everything we've been talking about:

Our recession was shallower and and our recovery was more rapid. I remember reading a WSJ article some time ago where a European ex-pat was observing how the US and Europe were dealing with the fallout of the financial crisis, and this observer noted that while the European instinct was to use the power of government to help the unemployed, the Americans tended to view a robust jobs market as the best solution for the unemployed. It sounds obvious and simple, but that distinction (directly paying the unemployed, vs. creating an environment where one can move out of unemployment) makes all the difference. I won't say we handled the situation optimally under the Obama regime, but nevertheless, we've done much better than Europe. Not bad for the country in which the financial crisis originated.

exactly what I mean. The U.S. is free, but not free for anything, if any people can do anything they want, this is a lawless country, a banana republic. In an ideal system, the law protects people's reasonable right, so people abide by the law by making contributions to the country and not hurting other's interest.

This is why I get excited about China. As soon as China figures out the "rule of law" bit, no one will be able to catch China. because you already have the same sort of drive and creativity to prosper, it's just the "law that protects people's reasonable rights" and "abiding by the law" that are still lacking, in my opinion. But I recognize my country more in China than I do in Europe whenever I travel to those locations.

China has that same restless energy that the US does, bounded by values of a well-defined culture. Europe, meanwhile, has been very proud of destroying its own traditions and values in the name of progressivism, and the state has rushed in to fill the void. Europe's view of the US as a lawless hell-hole is simply delusional. But as I said before, there is wide variation within each country, and even when we speak of "Europe," we need to be careful about Western and Eastern Europe, Northern and Southern Europe. I like this light-hearted video about the various stereotypes between our continents:

In Chinese mind, Europeans are more classy, gentleman-like, cool and have more royal blue blood. Many Chinese think the Europeans are more fashionable because they have luxury brands, while Americans only have Levi's and other low end fashion things. LOL, this is....

Oh, don't get me wrong. The US tends to look up to Europe as well, and they remain a luxury goods powerhouse for good reason. But we admire that aesthetic in the same way one looks at a painting by the Old Masters and marvels at their skill, even though the standards of art have long since moved on.

Europe was once the leading force in the world, and that must be respected. But that time was over a century ago, so while we still admire Europe, it's slowly starting to turn into a "isn't that quaint" attitude. As I said before, Europe's sense of superiority hasn't been supported by the numbers for a long, long time.

 

[jhungary]

This is contrary to the impression of Chinese in China. Many Chinese think the Americans' life is totally a mess, hanging out in the bar till late night, crazy car racing on the road or party party party....And according to my experience, this is not true. Normal Americans are more family oriented, after work they usually come home and spend more time with families. My experience could be not accurate, since I didn't spend too much time there. And most Chinese think Europeans are more conservative and rigorous or serious about anything, especially Germans or British, is that true?

@Nihonjin1051 @LeveragedBuyout Would you mind sharing your experiences?

European is a LOT more open than American.

Their value of sex is different than in the US, so does, well, almost EVEYRTHING.

I can get Pots in the street in Amsterdam, I can get a gun in just about any corner legally, The TV station in Europe are a lot more open than the US, while UK and the US have watershed period, they don't exist in DK1 or SVT, plus their show are more liberal sexually, I can turn on DK1 or SVT and say two girl naked and getting on it in normal hours TV show, but if you show that in the States, you will get fined.

 

[Audio]

Most European countries work far less than the US. I would say that even beyond the quantitative analysis, the qualitative factors are salient: the US provides incentives for hard work with a low tax rate and relatively ungenerous welfare system compared to Europe, so at the cultural level, the US emphasizes work more than the Europeans do. It's always puzzled me how Europeans reconcile to themselves their constant attempts to restrict the number of hours that can be worked per week, their constantly striking unions, their high wages and social benefits (resulting in much higher unemployment rates than in the US), their low GDP growth rates, and their unimpressive universities with their self-image as superior to Americans.

46 million of food stamps recipients. It puzzles me how you reconcile this with the image of prosperous US you've been peddling in this thread.

As for unemployment.....low wage retail and waiters are the bulk of the jobs that brough unemployment down..the official number might be understated as well.

U.S. Adds 126,000 Jobs In March; Unemployment Rate Lingers At 5.5 Percent

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/05/americas-unemployment-rate

US is turning into a quasi socialist state, where the top 1% rule and give handouts through various programmes, just enough so that people don't get fed up and bring out the guns. But in case they do, the recent militarization of PD's across the country should come in handy.

50% of budget for medical and social security.