The numbers of Chinese tourists travelling around the world is increasing rapidly but with this increased mobility has come a lot of criticism and negative media coverage. Chinese tourists are now notorious in many destinations throughout the world and are perceived as lacking in manners as well as being loud, uncultured and uneducated. This poor reputation has even lead to Chinese tourists being banned in some luxury shops and hotels in Paris – one of the top destinations for Chinese visitors.
Is there any truth in the belief that Chinese tourists are uncultured and rude and why has this idea even come about? This article explores the answer to these questions and what measures the Chinese government has been taking to try to improve the image of its people overseas.
For mainland Chinese, travelling abroad is a relatively new phenomenon with non-business people only being allowed to leave China from the 90s onwards. At that time it was only the mega-rich who could afford to travel abroad but, with the boom of China’s middle class from the early 2000s, more and more Chinese have had the means and inclination to travel. In 2013, the number of Chinese travelling abroad amounted to 100 million. The independent brokerage and investment group CLSA estimates that the number of mainland Chinese outbound tourists will total at least 200 million by 2020.
Favorite destinations for mainland Chinese visitors tend to be Asian countries with Hong Kong and Macau being the most popular. Looking further afield, the most popular non-Asian countries are the USA and France which, in 2012, attracted 1.5 and 1.3 million visitors from the mainland respectively.
Chinese tourists also spend more than any other nationality when they are abroad. According to the UN World Tourism Organization, Chinese tourists spent 102 billion USD in 2012 – the highest in the world. This spending power is very attractive to tourist sites throughout the world, so why do some areas not welcome Chinese visitors?
Unfortunately for the Chinese, they have a very bad reputation from Hong Kong to the USA and from the Maldives to Egypt. This is due to several factors including tourists’ behavior when they are overseas. There have been several stories in the media about badly behaved Chinese tourists including the boy who scratched his name into an ancient temple in Luxor, Egypt or the mother who let her child defecate in Kaohsiung airport, Taiwan, when they were just a few metres from a toilet. These incidents have made international news and have even lead to discussions in China’s Foreign Ministry.
They have had such an impact on China’s image as a country, that the government has created guidelines outlining proper behaviour for its citizens when they are abroad. They also developed an advertising campaign that was broadcast on television networks. The guidelines are set out in a 62-page document which advises against such things as nose picking, slurping food loudly and stealing life jackets from aeroplanes.
Wang Yang, Vice Premier of China said of Chinese tourists “They make a terrible racket in public places, scrawl their names on tourist sites, ignore red lights when crossing the road and spit everywhere. This damages our national image and has a terrible effect.”
This behaviour has lead to Chinese tourists being considered uneducated by many people who come into contact with them. Chinese tourists also tend to travel as part of organised tour groups who are seen as loud and rude by other people. These groups have made such an impression in some places that they have been refused entry to shops or hotels. One luxury Parisian boutique hotel went so far as to ban Chinese tour groups in 2012, but later amended the ban to all tour groups no matter what their nationality.
This bad behaviour and lack of cultural and sophistication has meant that Chinese tourists are looked upon negatively by other nations, especially in Hong Kong where Mainlanders are often referred to as “locusts”. A survey by the University of Hong Kong found that negative feelings towards mainland Chinese was increasing exponentially year on year and more than 50% of readers of the South China Morning Post put this down to “ill-behaved tourists”
Chinese tourists are also seen as just travelling to buy and show off luxury goods rather than to learn about the culture and see the historical sights of the country they are visiting. There are even some that say the Chinese are not discerning about what they buy, they just care whether it has a famous name or not. The German tourist board even referred to Chinese tourists as customers rather than visitors. However, the Chinese penchant for luxury goods isn’t all negative, according to CLSA, Chinese tourists helped boost the global luxury goods sector by 41% between 2009 and 2012.
The Chinese aren’t all about spending money, in some areas they are considered cheap as they don’t tend to tip in hotels and restaurants. This is due to the lack of a tipping culture in mainland China and not being aware of the cultural differences in the country they are visiting. It has been reported that some five-star hotels in the Maldives even remove kettles from the rooms of Chinese guests in order to force them to eat in restaurants on the islands rather than eating pot-noodles.
Eventually these negative views of Chinese tourists will likely improve as mainland Chinese become increasingly mobile and able to experience more of the world and learn the customs and etiquette of different countries. This learning process is a slow one but is one that all nations have been through. It wasn’t too long ago that all USA tourists were seen as loud, brash and rude.
Solo tourism is also growing in popularity meaning that the tour groups that have garnered such a bad reputation will slowly begin to decrease and a new type of Chinese tourist will emerge. Moreover, there has been a growth in the number of younger people who are able to travel abroad. These people have grown up with films, TV shows and books about other countries and are, therefore, more aware of cultural variations. The growth in a younger demographic of well-educated and cultured travellers should go a long way to repairing China’s reputation.