Refining Chinese tourists' image

As the tour bus pulled to a stop beside the Grand Canyon, the tourists spilled out and onto the Sky Walk on the western edge of the massive gorge. Some were shouting "I've conquered nature!" while striking a pose.

Surrounded by shouts and discarded cigarette butts, their tour guide Eric Luo patiently waited. Soon it would be quiet, and this gaggle of tourists would be on their way to Las Vegas to gamble a fortune on the tables or spend it in luxury stores.

As night fell, many drifted off to sleep on the bus. "A cycle is almost done," Luo said to himself, "but more are coming."

Working as a tour guide for a Chicago-based agency providing services for Chinese tourists, Luo has had around 200 similar group trips. "The schedule is always very tight, and you have to frequently remind some tourists to behave," Luo told the Global Times.

"Rude" and "ignorant" are terms that have been disparagingly used to describe Chinese tourists overseas, and during a recent national conference about the national Tourism Law, Vice Premier Wang Yang noted that "some tourists don't obey public rules while traveling and are hampering our national image," then said such behaviors should be regulated.

Wang's words have brought the issue to the spotlight once more, as Chinese tourists head abroad in greater numbers than ever before.

Cash or manners?

Being noisy or messy, ignoring smoking signs, cutting in lines, spitting in public places or disrespecting local customs top the list of bad behaviors overseas, but despite this negative stereotype of Chinese tourists, their purchasing power is sorely needed in many countries.

According to an April report from the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China is now the top source of international tourism expenditure, spending $102 billion in 2012, with 83 million people traveling overseas. China is now the fastest-growing tourism market in the world.

"I saw Putonghua-speaking staff in luxury stores in Seoul and Paris, ordered congee in a Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, and UnionPay is now widely available in Southeast Asia to cater to Chinese customers," Tao Yi, a Beijing-based investment analyst who travels frequently, told the Global Times.

While the international service industry is trying its best to be attentive, domestic tourism agencies are working to educate people about proper etiquette.

Major agencies providing overseas travel services include the China International Travel Service Limited, Spring Tours, China Comfort Travel and China CYTS Tours. Representatives from all these companies told the Global Times that they have pre-travel briefings to introduce cultural differences and local rules to customers, trying to nurture good manners "after receiving complaints or encountering incidents."

"It feels bad when your clients sometimes act rudely and yell 'I paid money to have fun' when locals criticize their behavior and ask them to stop," said Luo.

Luo's sentiment was echoed by several overseas tourism professionals reached by the Global Times. "Some Chinese nouveau riche enjoy the power brought to them by money. They kind of skipped the phase of sophistication because their wealth accumulated overnight and they feel they deserve anything because they're a paying guest," said Vincent Lee, a consultant with a New York-based tourism agency.