Luxury Chinese travelers influenced by web and digital magazines for their choice of destination

Hurun Report has cooperated with ILTM Asia to publish The Chinese Luxury Traveler 2013. This report attempts to calculate the number of Chinese luxury travelers, evaluates their consumption patterns, travel habits as well as key market trends over the last year. In addition, this report analyses the purchase of luxury products and examines the impact of Chinese wealth overseas.
Chinese luxury travelers are going overseas less, down to an average 2.8 trips a year. The frequency of travel is slightly higher in First Tier Cities. The internet and magazines are the main sources of information when deciding travel destinations. Chinese luxury travelers are going overseas in smaller groups, most often in a group of three to ten people. Expenditure on hotel rooms is higher than the global average and Chinese tourists are the largest travelling nationality in the world for the third year running – and have widened the gap with second place.

Alison Gilmore, Event Director, ILTM Portfolio, said: “ILTM events are trade-only hubs created exclusively to develop the business of bespoke luxury travel. Agents and buyers attending ILTM Asia from across the region will have the opportunity to ensure they’re ahead of the game in meeting their clients’ increasing demands during three days of face to face pre-scheduled appointme nts, educational seminars and business networking.”.

Pierre Gervois, CEO of China Elite Focus and Publisher of the Shanghai Travelers’ Club magazine said “The new generation of luxury Chinese travelers is changing the game in the luxury hospitality industry. They are now very experienced international travelers, with the most important purchasing power compared with any other nationality. Influencing their choices of hotel brands and destinations is critical for luxury travel and tourism  marketing executives.”.

According to statistics provided by the National Tourism Administration, the number of Chinese outbound tourists in 2012 was a staggering 83 million, an increase of 18.4% year on year. China’s outbound tourism market is now larger than that of Germany and the United States, putting it firmly on the map as the world’s largest outbound tourism market. It is expected that China’s outbound market will continue to grow throughout 2013 with numbers reaching 94 million, which translates to a year on year rise of 15%. A key reason for the increase in the number of luxury travelers is the increase in Chinese HNWIs. At present, there are 2.8 million US$ millionaires in China, a year on year increase of 4%.

One hundred HNWIs were asked about their travel habits from the period of March and April 2013. Most of those surveyed are from Shanghai and Beijing, with 80% being male and an average age of 37 years. Data collected also includes B2B data through investigating domestic travel agencies and international hotels from ILTM’s database.
The Decision Making Process
The internet and magazines are the most important media channels for seeking out travel information. 60% of HNWIs will make the decision themselves, usually traveling with family or friends for the purpose of sightseeing, but increasingly for business. The most important factor when choosing a hotel is the location and brand.
Bookings are made by the HNWIs themselves or by a family member and the logistics are taken care of by an assistant through third party online booking sites. Business travel is mainly scheduled through local business partners.

Destination Inspiration: Internet and magazines main channels
83% on the internet every day
91% are in the habit of reading monthly magazines
Travel Formulation Trends
Destination decision:Themselves 60%
Travel companions:Family 40%;Friends 20%
Travel Purpose:Sightseeing 45%;Business 43%
Hotel selection:Location 61%;Brand 58%

Bookings
Hotel bookings: HNWIs themselves 38%;Secretary/assistants 30%
Personal travel hotel booking:Third party online booking sites 22%
Business travel hotel booking:Local business partners 24%

Travel Habits

Although Spring Festival and the October holiday are still popular travel times, there is not one particular time when Chinese HNWIs do most of their traveling; rather they tend to stagger their trips in order to avoid peak periods.
Most package tours last for 9.8 days on average and most consist of between three to ten travelers (53%). 43% of travel groups contain over ten individuals. Trips overseas last for an average of 7.4 days with 63% in the five to eight day travel time bracket. On each overseas trip, Chinese travelers visit one or two countries and the preferred destination is France, followed by the US. Family, friends, and the entrepreneurs themselves control the booking process. The deciding travel factors are shopping, culture, cuisine, and finally business potential. 43% of Chinese travelers spend over US$5,000 (excluding flights) per trip, and 11% of them spend over US$10,000.

Tour group sizes are generally smaller for luxury travelers who are spending over US$10,000 (excluding flights). On average there are 7.1 people per group and only 16% of tour groups are larger than ten travelers. For big spending travelers, trips are usually longer, all over five days and half over eight days, with the average trip time being 9.6 days. Most fly business class and inChina prefer Air China and internationally Singapore Airlines. Their preferred destination is France, followed by Switzerland. Most travel with family but also with alumni associations and private clubs.

The U.S. travel industry is slowly learning how to attract affluent Chinese tourists

Cover of Vip Golf USA magazine, the first magazine fully in Chinese about Golfing in the United States.

According to a report released last week by the U.N. World Tourism Organization, Chinese travelers spent $102 billion on international tourism in 2012, 40% more than they spent in 2011. More than 80 million Chinese traveled internationally in 2011, outspending German tourists — the longtime leader in overseas travel spending — for the first time. Those numbers have steadily climbed since 2000, when 10 million Chinese traveled abroad.
This remarkable growth — largely due to relaxed government restrictions on foreign travel and the rise of a Chinese middle class with disposable income — has forced the U.S. travel industry, from hotels to restaurants to shopping centers, to adapt to this influx of Chinese tourists.
The hotel industry has perhaps been the most attentive. According to USA Today, Marriott has stationed 20 sales representatives in China and teaches employees in the U.S. to speak basic Mandarin phrases like hello and thank you. The Marriott Marquis in New York City has even replaced room numbers on the 44th floor with names because the number four is considered bad luck in many Asian cultures.
Hilton sends its reps to China regularly to meet with corporate travel planners and, according to the report, started a Chinese-guest program, staffed with native Chinese speakers. The company features Chinese meals and displays oranges and tangerines (often considered good luck) in 63 of its hotels.

Meanwhile, Starwood, which owns Sheraton, Westin and W hotels, has revised its amenities and services as well, according to USA Today: “In-room tea kettles, slippers, translated restaurant menus and welcome brochures, on-site translation services and comfort food such as congee (rice porridge) and noodles” can now be found at many of Starwood’s properties.
Even the publishing industry has now several specialized magazines made for very affluent Chinese travelers coming to the United States: Luxury Hotels of America, VIP Golf USA, Niuyue Mag -  fully in Chinese Mandarin language – offer the latest news about historical hotels in Texas, golf courses in Arizona, or sophisticated boutique hotels in New York City. “The new generation of Chinese tourists coming to the U.S. is craving for high quality information about historical and boutique hotels in America, and want to try other kind of hotels that standardized hotel chains”, said Pierre Gervois, CEO of China Elite Focus, the publishing company of Luxury Hotels of America.
States around the country have also been experimenting with ways to draw more Chinese tourists. According to BBC News, the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism holds a workshop advising businesses on how to cater to Chinese tourists, and California has started a program called China Ready, which includes a learning kit that helps the state’s businesses serve those travelers and understand their culture.
So what are Chinese travelers looking for when they leave their homeland? Mainly, luxury goods. Many tourists leave China to shop, spending an average of $1,230 per trip, and some estimates show they spend about $3,200 per trip when visiting New York City. Items such as clothes and accessories (many of which were made in China) are often at the top of their list.

While the increase in discretionary income among China’s middle class is part of the tourism spike in the U.S., the Chinese government’s decision in 2007 to make the U.S. an “approved destination” has also helped. The designation lets American businesses advertise and market to audiences in China.
As U.S. businesses adapt, they have been forced to confront the reality that America is no longer the inevitable No. 1 destination for Chinese tourists. Because of prior approval by the Chinese government, many European countries have been marketing to Chinese tourists for longer. University of South Carolina professor Robert Li told USA Today that travelers from Shanghai now prefer to travel to France rather than the U.S.
But the number of travelers visiting the U.S. from China is still projected to grow dramatically over the next few years. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that from 2010 to 2016, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. will grow by 232%.

Source : Time, article by J. Sanburn

Chinese tourists spent $102 billion on foreign trips in 2012

Chinese tourists spent $102 billion on foreign trips last year, outstripping deep-pocketed travelers from Germany and the United States.
Chinese tourists spent 41 percent more on foreign travel in 2012 than the year before, beating the close to $84 billion both German and U.S. travelers parted with last year.
Tourists from other fast-growing economies with swelling middle classes, like Russia and Brazil, also increased spending in 2012. In recession-hit Europe, however, French and Italian tourists reined in their holiday budgets.
“The impressive growth of tourism expenditure from China and Russia reflects the entry into the tourism market of a growing middle class from these countries,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai.
The German Travel Association (DRV) said it was to be expected that the Chinese would eventually overtake Germans in terms of spending, given that the country had more inhabitants than North America, Russia and Europe put together.
“But that they have overtaken us already is astonishing,” DRV president Juergen Buechy said.
The Chinese make more long-haul trips than Germans, who typically go to Mediterranean destinations, meaning that the average spend per holiday was greater, he added.
“This all new generation of  young & affluent Chinese travelers is much more sophisticated than their parents. They prefer to travel independently rather than in group tours, and take the time to choose carefully their hotel and shopping program well in advance” said Pierre Gervois, CEO & Publisher of the Shanghai Travelers’ Club magazine, a travel magazine for very affluent Chinese outbound tourists.
China is the world’s fastest growing tourist source market, thanks to higher disposable incomes in the world’s number two economy and looser foreign travel restrictions. Chinese tourists made 83 million foreign trips in 2012, compared to 10 million in 2000.
Hoteliers, tour companies, restaurants and even taxi drivers will need to brush up on their knowledge of Chinese cuisine, culture and language if they are to tempt them away from favorite destinations like Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Maldives, European tourism officials have said.
Other countries in the top 10 including Japan and Australia posted growth in travel spending, though only Russia came close to China’s huge growth, with a 32 percent increase in holiday budgets.
Russians are now the fifth highest-spending tourists, parting with $43 billion last year, according to the Madrid-based UNWTO, and catching up on the British, who spent $52 billion in 2012.
Italian spending dipped by 1 percent to $26 billion in 2012 and French tourists parted with $38 billion, a 6 percent drop year-on-year. The two euro zone peers were the only countries in the top 10 outbound markets to post declines.

In 2013, Let’s re-think marketing to affluent Chinese outbound tourists

I want to thank you all for your active participation in our discussions and exchanges on this blog about how welcome better Chinese travelers. You’ll notice that I don’t say “Tourists”. I prefer to use the term “Travelers” as I think it better descibes the level of maturity and sophistication reached by Chinese outbound travelers. The time of cheap “Group tours” is now over for Chinese travelers:It’s time for hospitality and travel industries in the United States, Europe and Asia-pacific to re-think the way they are promoting their hotels and destination management companies’ services in China. More focus on quality and genuine VIP welcome, less focus on discounts and entry-level services. The 2013 Chinese traveler now wants the exact same level of service that European and American travelers. It’s time for all of us to understand this and act accordingly for the marketing and Public Relations campaigns intended for a Chinese audience: Better contents, better design, more interaction on Chinese outbound travel social media networks and a more accurate advertisement strategy with specialized Chinese luxury travel magazines. Four pounds glossy paper Chinese luxury lifestyle magazines are perfect to promote watches and jewelry brands in China, but are not very effective to promote outbound travel destinations. The new generation of digital Chinese luxury outbound travel magazines are far more effective to reach the specific audience of affluent Chinese outbound travelers. We’ll talk a lot about these new exciting magazines in 2013!

Have a great 2013 year with more Chinese guests.

Pierre Gervois

CEO

China Elite Focus Ltd.

Pierre Gervois, the leading expert on marketing to Chinese inbound tourists in the U.S. will be in New York on Oct 18, 2012 for meetings with travel and tourism industry professionals.

In the first half of 2012, +46% of visa applications processed at U.S. Embassy for Chinese leisure travelers

President Barack Obama’s initiative to boost international tourism has pushed the US government to process a record 1 million visa applications from China so far during fiscal 2012.
“This extraordinary accomplishment represents visa processing growth of almost 43 percent over the same period last fiscal year, when we had processed just over 675,000 visa applications in China,” the State Department announced Thursday.
The US federal government’s fiscal year begins Oct 1 and ends Sept 30, so the department was referring to visa-processing totals through the end of the third quarter on June 30. As China Daily reported in April, through the first half of fiscal 2012, the State Department had processed 453,000 visa applications from Chinese citizens, up 46 percent from the first six months of fiscal 2011.
To reach the 1 million figure through the current fiscal year’s first nine months, department staff at the US Embassy in Beijing and the four consulates across China processed at least 547,000 visa applications from Chinese citizens in the three months from April 1 through June 30 – reflecting especially high demand for the busy summer travel season.
The State Department credited the opening of more windows for interviews, expansion of consular office space and better-maintained waiting areas for visa processing at the Beijing embassy and its consulates in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenyang. Furthermore, it said the average waiting time for a visa interview has been reduced to about a week from the several months it used to take to get an appointment.
According to Pierre Gervois, CEO of China Elite Focus and the author of the Book How U.S. Retail, Travel and Hospitality Industries Can Attract Affluent Chinese Tourists “This initiative is the direct result of a very successful lobbying campaign organized by the retail, travel, and hospitality industries that were the first-hand witnesses of the incredible purchasing power of Chinese tourists in the last few years. Roger Dow (president of the United States Travel Association) and Joe McInerney (president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association) have done a fantastic job of explaining to Washington the vital necessity to the American economy of finding ways to increase the number of Chinese leisure visitors.”
Dong Xue, a senior at Purdue University in Indiana, has just returned from China and it took her only a week to get a visa, even at the peak of summer. As a repeat traveler to the US, Dong was able to use a bank drop-off service to renew her visa. Without having to go for a personal interview, she submitted her paperwork through the bank and got her visa in five business days.
“As the Chengdu consulate (nearest to her hometown of Chongqing) was very busy then, their colleagues in Guangzhou processed my application,” Dong told China Daily. “It’s so fast. Usually it will take two weeks.”
The Obama administration, pointing out the value of travel and tourism to the US economy, introduced in January a strategy to make the United States the top destination for foreign visitors. More than 1 million jobs could be created over the next decade if the US increases its share of the international travel market, Obama has said.
In 2011, about 1.18 million Chinese visited the United States and the number is expected to reach 2 million in 2015, according to the National Tourism Administration of China.

The rise of the new Chinese International Traveler: Younger, Independent and Affluent.

The number of Chinese travelers making international trips was up by a strong 22 per cent in 2011, compared to 2010, and experts predict China is on track to overtake Germany and the US as the world’s largest outbound tourism market in the next few years.

The inaugural Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM) from Hotels.com, one of the world’s leading online hotel booking websites, gives an insight into how the rise of the Chinese traveller is changing the dynamics of the global hotel market.

Johan Svanstrom, Managing Director of Hotels.com Asia Pacific, commented: “The Chinese made a staggering 70 million international trips in 2011 and, while many of these were to Hong Kong and Macau, the number going further afield is growing significantly. Implementing strategies to cater specifically to this burgeoning source market is moving from a nice-to-have to a competitive necessity.”

Surveying more than 5,000 Hotels.com’s hotel partners around the world, the report found the majority of respondents envisage the boom in outbound Chinese travel continuing. One in five (22%) expect to see an increase of as much as 40%. Many national governments are facilitating the boom by relaxing visa requirements. Japan and Spain are examples of popular tourism markets that have already done this and Korea, amongst others, will implement similar changes later this year. Chinese international travelers are known to spend significant amounts on shopping and there is a clear opportunity for the hotel industry to grab a share of that spend for the stay experience itself.

The study found that the profile of Chinese guests is changing as they become increasingly more independent, confident, younger and more familiar with foreign cultures and customs.

According to Pierre Gervois, author of the Best Selling book How U.S. Retail, Travel and Hospitality Industries Can Attract Affluent Chinese Tourists, “Chinese outbound tourists are now extremely mature consumers, and know what they want – and do not want. The time of low cost group tours is now definitely over as they want a true travel experience, specifically in the United States, the #1 dream destination according to China Elite Focus’ survey”

Among hoteliers polled, it is clear that many are starting to adapt, offering Mandarin-speaking staff, translated materials, Chinese menus, entertainment options and the China UnionPay card services for payments. Examples from the study found that 41% of hotel respondents are planning to offer Chinese TV channels, while 66% of European hotel respondents are planning to offer Chinese breakfast options.

The Chinese economy continues to grow at a fast rate, contributing to the build-up of a travelling middle class of several hundred million people. With the the ongoing economic uncertainty in key markets, catering to Chinese travellers should be high on the list of priorities.

“Hoteliers should form concrete plans in two areas. Firstly, develop marketing strategies to reach the Chinese source market; concentrating on online as the Chinese internet population has now crossed the 500 million mark. Secondly, adapt hotel property services to cater to the expectation and needs of this growing audience,” concluded Svanstrom.

Source: Travel Daily News, August 2012

New Zealand is targeting wealthy Chinese tourists

Auckland tourism chiefs and Auckland Airport will launch a new strategy to attract rich Chinese tourists.
Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) and the airport company say the strategy is based around targeting high yielding business and first-class passengers and selling premium experiences and accommodation on arrival in Auckland.
This will involve marketing direct to consumers through initiatives like partnering with airline frequent flyers and platinum credit card companies to promote tourism packages to wealthy customers and working with inbound tour operators.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown has announced a new marketing partnership with Guangzhou as part of the mayoral trade mission to five Chinese cities.
Up to 60 multimillionaire business people from the exclusive Shanghai Travelers’ Club were hosted at a function on April 19th in the city by ATEED, Auckland Airport, Air New Zealand and SkyCity.
China has more than a million millionaires, the number of which grew at more than 30 per cent last year.
Last year there were 134,444 Chinese arrivals into Auckland out of 145,524 Chinese arrivals to New Zealand. There was a total of 2.6 million tourists last year.
ATEED manager tourism Jason Hill said Auckland was investing strongly in attracting more high-yield Chinese visitors to Auckland.
“It is vital we work as an industry to maximise the potential of this fast-growing visitor market. This China delegation and luxury marketing fund will bode well for raising awareness of Auckland’s premium tourism offering and mix of sophisticated urban and natural experiences,” said Hill.
According to Pierre Gervois, CEO of China Elite Focus, the marketing agency who created the campaign “Luxury New Zealand” on behalf of Auckland Airport, “New Zealand has an enormous potential with wealthy Chinese travelers. Auckland’s Airport strategy to increase the number of premium Chinese passengers is the right strategy for New Zealand”. The official website of this campaign www.xindaohualv.com is the leading luxury travel website promoting New Zealand, exclusively in Chinese language.
Auckland’s China trade mission coincides with an announcement this week by the Ministry of Transport of a new air services arrangement with China that triples the amount of passenger flights that may be operated between the two countries.
Auckland Airport chief executive Simon Moutter said the initiative was part of Auckland Airport’s programme to develop premium travel markets.
“We are absolutely committed to capturing the lucrative Chinese travel market. It is important we jointly, as an industry, grab the opportunity to develop New Zealand as a premium brand to that market.”
Chinese tourists now spent on average $300 a night, more than European, North American and other Asian tourists.
Chinese holidays in New Zealand had now grown to an average of 6.1 nights per visitor.
“We expect this to grow as the Chinese become more confident travellers,” said Moutter.

Wealthy Chinese looking for more private jets

Dassault Falcon will set up a new operation in Shanghai to help support its rapidly growing Chinese fleet. The new entity, to be known as Dassault Falcon Aircraft Services – China, will be established by the end of the second quarter of 2012 in partnership with Shanghai Hawker Pacific and will be located within the Shanghai Hawker Pacific complex at Shanghai’s Hongqiao International Airport.

Dassault Falcon Aircraft Services – China will play a key role in ensuring first-class support for the Falcon fleet that is expected to triple by the end of 2012. The unit will be staffed by a team of technicians with an average experience of more than 10 years with Falcon business jets specially trained on Falcon 7X, Falcon 2000LX and Falcon 900LX models. Line maintenance, AOG support, troubleshooting and component replacement will be among the services offered.

Dassault Falcon Aircraft Services – China will bring extensive, hands-on Falcon maintenance to the world-class Shanghai Hawker Pacific’s facilities that support local and transient Falcon aircraft, while providing an opportunity to transfer technical maintenance know-how to Chinese engineers in this developing market.

“This facility in Shanghai is an essential part of our strategy to support our growing market share in China,” said John Rosanvallon, President and CEO of Dassault Falcon. “Our customers will appreciate the instant increase in the level of Falcon maintenance experience that this program will offer, as well as the dedication that only Dassault as the aircraft manufacturer can provide.”

The demand for long-range private jets is increasing in China, as wealthy Chinese individuals are looking for aircrafts able to go directly to New York City or London from any airport in China. According to Pierre Gervois, CEO of China Elite Focus, the leading PR agency focused on HNWI Chinese consumers “The new generation of Chinese wealthy individuals considers the acquisition of a private aircraft as the ultimate symbol of success. For instance, we know that very private VIP clubs such as the Shanghai Travelers’ Club have already organized trips to the United States with the specific purpose of buying pre-owned private jets in the U.S.”

The Shanghai Hawker Pacific complex features a 4,000 sq m facility for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), in addition to its fixe based operations (FBO) capabilities. It was the first third-party MRO facility in mainland China and is a joint partnership with the Shanghai Airports Authority.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) recently granted a Part 145 repair certificate for the facility as well as a Part 145 approval for the Falcon 7X. Approvals for the Falcon 900LX and Falcon 2000LX models are expected within six months.

“Dassault Falcon and Shanghai Hawker Pacific have a shared vision of providing the best customer service experience in China,” said John Riggir, Vice President-Asia for Hawker Pacific. “We have the facilities, dedication and infrastructure to meet our customers’ needs today and into the future. The Dassault team will bring a more advanced business aircraft MRO experience to complement and rapidly grow the capabilities of Shanghai Hawker Pacific as China absorbs this fleet of new Falcons.”

In addition to this new facility in Shanghai, Falcon customers can access repair facilities operated by Hawker Pacific in Singapore and Sydney, Australia and Jet Aviation in Hong Kong.

Speeding US economic recovery with Chinese tourists

With easing travel restrictions and growing spending power, American politicians and businesspeople look to the increasing number of Chinese travelers to speed economic recovery.
Amid the commotion of shuffling lines and muffled voices, Tina Tian sits in disbelief outside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Her head hung low, Tian’s phone rings. She answers her father’s call with a sigh of resignation.   

Five years later, Tian still remembers the disappointment of being denied an entry visa to visit the United States.
“I want to visit America because it is a superpower,” Tian says, now a recent college graduate from Sichuan University. Despite being denied a visa twice, Tian remains determined. “I am a big Lakers fan, I watch Gossip Girls and love to drink Starbucks. My daily life is very influenced by the United States and that is why I want to visit.”
Though Tian has yet to make the trip, Chinese travelers are landing at U.S. airports in record numbers. In 2011, over one million travelers from the Mainland arrived in the U.S., with hundreds of thousands more pouring in from Taiwan and Hong Kong. With expanding incomes and an eagerness to venture abroad, American politicians and businesses are lining up to greet Chinese tourists at the gates.

Speaking at Disney World in February, President Obama announced his vision to expand international tourism as a means to economic recovery.
“Every year, tens of millions of tourists from all over the world come and visit America,” Obama said. “And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work.” With the Department of Commerce estimating that Chinese and Brazilian travelers spend an average of $6,000 per visit, ensuring the U.S. is a top travel destination is more national priority than marketing material.
For Tian, that means the third time may be a charm. Obama’s plan included several steps for increasing access to the U.S., including simplifying and accelerating non-immigrant visa processes, making the Global Entry Program permanent and nominating Taiwan to the Visa Waiver Program. The bottom line for the President’s push?
“We need to help businesses all across the country grow and create jobs; compete and win.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that arrivals from China will increase by approximately 274% between 2012 and 2016. Last year, arrivals from China were estimated at 1,098,000 and 294,000 from Taiwan. If Taiwan is accepted into the visa waiver program, numbers are expected to rise even more as citizens would be eligible to travel to U.S. territories for 90 days without a visa.
With that number expected to top 3 million visitors from China by 2016, American businesses are preparing for their arrival in a big way.
“The number one reason Chinese tourists come to the U.S. is for shopping,” says Pierre Gervois, President and CEO of China Elite Focus, an agency specializing in wealthy Chinese outbound tourism.
This statement holds true as Chinese travelers spent $7.2 billion abroad on luxury goods, a 29% increase from the $5.6 billion last year just during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday.
“The second reason,” Gervois continues, “is that the U.S. is well known for their movie stars and Hollywood scenes and they want to do a lot of sight seeing.”

Carol Martinez, spokesperson from the Los Angeles Convention and Visitor Authority, concurs as she says that significant focus is put on accommodating outbound Chinese tourists through measures like setting up Chinese boarding services at major attraction sites. Martinez highlights that the California Travel and Tourism Commission opened tourism promotion offices in Shanghai and Beijing.
Another compelling reason: travel to the U.S. can act as a social status marker for Chinese and Taiwanese.
“If you can afford to visit and purchase many goods from the U.S., it makes a statement that you are living a good life,” says Nancy Cheng, a Taiwan native.
In 2003, the U.S. opened the Group Visa Program for Chinese travelers, making it far easier for large tour groups, athletic teams, and entertainment groups to enter the country. The most important trend, however, is that visitors from China are beginning to travel independently. Cheng notes this phenomenon as, “a perfect example of xuan fu, which means to show off your wealth.”
“The second wave of China’s outbound tourism has started, with more self-organized travelers slowing down and spreading further afield,” says Dr. Georg Wolfgang, Director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. “Increasingly travel-savvy and globally connected, below 45 years and green, the new Chinese tourist is arriving in exotic locations and staying for more than just a snapshot.”
These “new” Chinese tourists are setting a new standard for Chinese outbound tourism and are eager to explore forms of non-traditional tourism.

Ecotourism, increasingly popular with Western tourists, is also catching on with Chinese. The emphasis of nature immersion and outdoor adventures in locations such as Hawaii and Alaska is becoming more appealing as some Chinese look to escape from the hardships of modern urban living.
Mike McCartney, president of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), forecasts that the number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii will increase annually by 20% from 2012 to 2014, with those who visit consisting largely of young affluent individuals. For this reason, outdoors activities such as golfing, boating, yachting and surfing are being promoted and emphasized in their marketing efforts.
“Mass tourists will stay on the beaten track, but new Chinese tourists can be attracted to lesser known places if they are provided with a good reason to go there which translates again into prestige,” Wolfgang says. “Connecting destinations with the history of overseas Chinese living in that area might also be a good starting point.”
The exponential rise in Chinese tourists has also positively affected the EB-5 and the proposed EB-6 Visa programs. Intended to attract foreign investors, the EB-5 visa program provides foreign nationals a way to gain a green card for a minimum of $500,000 investment for a targeted employment area within the U.S. The program has created 31,000 jobs and has attracted over $1.5 billion in investments through mainly private companies since its inception. With a surge of Chinese tourists in the U.S., hopes are that the number of applicants for the EB-5 and EB-6 programs will also increase.

While statistics rise for conventional tourist arrivals, there has been a parallel spike in other “grey” forms of travel.  “Birth tourism,” as it has been labeled, sees wealthy pregnant women travel to birth their babies in foreign countries. Potentially living in the country for months before delivery, babies birthed in the U.S. provide two benefits as seen by these Chinese parents: instant U.S. citizenship and a way around China’s pesky one-child policy.
China has already overtaken Italy, Japan, France and the United Kingdom in terms of international tourist spending. In 2010, the average travel spending per Chinese visitor to the U.S. was at $6,243 followed by India at $6,131 and Brazil at $4,940, while European countries peaked at $3,132. The flood of Chinese outbound tourists offers an obvious potential cash flow. With President Obama acknowledging the need to facilitate travel, the U.S. can anticipate more Chinese tourists in more places across the country.
“The primary motivation to travel to the U.S., besides business and visiting friends and relatives, is to gain prestige and to learn,” Wolfgang notes. “To attract Chinese visitors, these two aspects have to be emphasized, ‘Be the most famous, oldest, greatest in your field and provide a mix of entertainment and education.’”
It should only be a matter of time before Tian is sipping Starbucks at her first Lakers game.

Article by Chia-ling Melody Yuan, graduate student in Strategic Public Relations at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

http://www.uschina.usc.edu