Two foreign tourists take pictures in Beijing's Temple of Heaven. Despite an increase in the number of overseas visits in the first nine months of this year, the inbound tourism industry is unlikely to meet its five-year target. (Photo/China Daily)
Chinese tourists traveling overseas spent $215 billion in 2015, a massive 53 percent rise over the previous year, yet the potential for visitors going to China remains under-exploited, according to a key report by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council.
The amount spent by visitors to China increased by only 3 percent during 2015, a total of 385 billion yuan ($61 billion), the WTTC said in its 2016 Economic Impact Report, which was released today.
Statistics from China's National Tourist Administration showed that the number of inbound tourists to China had been declining since showing some growth in 2011, although last year it recorded a slight increase of 4.1 percent to 134 million visitors.
The number of Chinese travellers heading abroad in 2015 rose by 9 percent over the previous year to 117million, the NTA said.
By contrast, the inbound tourism business in Japan rose by almost 50 percent in 2015, David Scowsill, president and chief executive of WTTC, said during an interview with China Daily.
"Tourists coming into China are more mature people focused on exploring the culture instead of buying branded goods," Scowsill said.
According to research last year by China Tourism Academy, most overseas travelers come to China for a mixture of business purposes and sightseeing. With above-average income, they usually travel with their families and friends. More than 70 percent of inbound tourists spend about $500 to 3,000 on their trip, transportation as the biggest expenditure.
The stagnation is the result of a series of reasons, including slower economic development in tourists' countries of origin and the appreciation of RMB, said Yang Jinsong, an associate researcher with China Tourism Academy.
"China's inbound tourism has entered a bottle-neck as the product development has been adhering to the same pattern since late 1970s and it will be really difficult to make a breakthrough under the outdated pattern," said Yang, who believed to improve the situation, China needs "supply-side reform" in this field.
For example, most of the overseas promotion of China's tourism products is done by traditional channels such as tourism exhibitions and traditional media.
However, a survey by Google and British market research firm Millward Brown in 2015 showed that 83 percent of overseas travelers heading for China collect information by internet. After searching for information through internet, 63 percent of tourists also choose to buy products or book services online.
Yang said "For local governments and tourism practitioners in China, inbound tourism is very important and the majority of promotion funds have been spent on this field. However, it seems that they haven't found the right way to do it."
Last year, the most popular destinations for overseas tourists in 2015 were Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. "Currently the traditional ports of entry are still mainstream destinations but the path of passenger flow needs to diversify," said Yang.
Promotion was also listed by WTTC as a key issue to help tap inbound potential.
"China has so many different cultures, most of which are outside the big cities. But the country needs to market all that under the umbrella of a Chinese national brand to compete with other countries instead of every provinces and city promoting themselves, " Scowsill said.
Travel agencies are gradually noticing that their products need to be more tailored for today's travelers,
Yu Liangbing, China CYTS Tours' deputy general manager for inbound tourism, said his company now handled 40 percent fewer overseas tourists compared with the peak in 2007. The biggest source of tourists received by his company is the US, followed by Japan, Germany and UK. Among them, about 30 percent choose individual tours instead of package tour.
"The inbound tourism industry still has room to exist and develop," Yu said. "This is our opportunity to expand as many competitors are retreating and our future direction will be more focused on offering services for independent tourists."
The WTTC's Scowsill said he believes that the Chinese government still has enough motivation to develop inbound tourism.
"China is one of the best examples globally to be focused on in our industry," he said, noting that the country has recognized tourism as one of the five pillars of the Chinese economy long ago and the infrastructure construction undergoing is forward-looking.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, by 2020 the country will have 260 civil airports. About 19,000 kilometers of high speed rail were operating by the end of 2015. The number is expected to reach 30,000 by 2020.
Currently the travel and tourism industry supports over 65 million jobs in China, representing 8.4 percent of the workforce. But this is below the global average of 9.8 percent, emphasizing the further room for growth in travel and tourism's contribution to employment, according to the WTTC report.
The report predicts that visitor exports from tourism, in other words the money spent, could increasingly help contribute to the Chinese economy as exports in some traditional manufacturing sectors seem to be slowing down.
Praising China's recent measures in offering tax refunds and visa-free transit in some cities, the WTTC's Scowsill said that another priority for China is to further simplify visa processing and expand its visa waiver program with other countries.
"China should try to make visas electronic, which is safer as well as more customer-friendly," he said.
