China: coming very soon to a tourist spot near you …

By Véronique Vallières

Date: 07/10/04

CHINESE tourists are set to throng through European streets to admire cultural landmarks and shop in fancy boutiques this week, during a holiday marking the 55th anniversary of the country's revolution in 1949.

Since 1 September, all 25 countries in the newly enlarged EU, with the exception of the UK, Ireland and Denmark, have been welcoming Chinese tourist groups. The EU and the China National Administration signed a landmark accord to facilitate and promote Chinese tourism in Europe.

The Authorized Destination Status agreement, the largest tourism accord ever concluded by China, makes travelling to EU countries more convenient for Chinese nationals in tour groups, giving them easier access to travel services, visas and currency.

As China's economy is growing rapidly and the Chinese are getting richer, international operators consider Chinese tourism as the biggest growing sector in the industry. Europe is also eyeing China as a source of travellers and hopes to get a piece of the cake.

The size of the population, combined with the economic boom in China, means that it will have an estimated 100 million outbound travellers by 2020. Some sources claim China has the potential to equal the US as a source of tourists for Europe.

"A new market of 1.3 billion people growing at 8% per annum is extremely important, it is very nice business, but only in the medium- or long-term," said Tom Jenkins, executive director of the European Tour Operators Association. "This is going to have little effect on the demand in the near future."

Jenkins expects the market to grow in parallel with the Chinese economy, at between 8-15% in the next four years.

Although the latest figures show that 645,000 Chinese visited the EU in 2002, European countries still have a lot of catching up to do. As the Chinese prefer to travel to other Asian countries, Germany was the only European country to have made it to the list of the top ten destinations for Chinese.

Before the agreement, Chinese tour groups were not allowed to travel to the EU and individual tourism was only possible with certain member states. Despite the progress made by the accord, some sources believe it is dubious to assert that China has now become a totally free market.

Only China's urban elite, estimated at 1% of the total population, can afford such holidays.

The Authorized Destination Status agreement signed by the EU and China facilitates tourist trips to Europe for Chinese nationals since 1 September 2004.