Local Perspective

Well, so when we talk about Asia of course, as you and I can understand that we have to talk about China. China in the past, you know a few decades, it seems ever since China opened its door to the outside world in 1978. So the tourism industry has grown both domestically, internationally, both inbound and outbound. So what do you see China playing a role in this global tourism industry, playing a role in this global tourism industry, and regional or as a whole. What do you see the kind of role that china can play in this global industry? Well it has already played a major role, I mean if you look back, I think it’s something like ten years.

China, I think was about six or seven tourists receiving country. Now I think it’s one or two, depends on which statistics you look at, but China also has developed a massive outbound tourist flow, and virtually countries all over the world are queuing up to receive Chinese tourists. And despite the effect that Chinese outbound tourists are having, it still constitutes less than 3% of the total Chinese population, and while I would be optimistic about China for three reasons. One, governments have been much more in China certainly One, governments have been much more in China certainly have been much more relaxed about travel visas passports travel regulations. I think that’s the first thing.

The second thing is that of course the Chinese economy has expanded enormous rate, which means that for many people, substantial number of people that their per capita income is increased, and also that the disposable income is increased. That is the second thing. The third thing is the introduction of I think what you call the golden weeks in three areas, so when you’ve got a combination of rising incomes, rising disposable incomes, and also freedom to travel. Then this has an enormous impetus on developing tourism both domestically, regionally and internationally, and unless there’s a major political change in China, which I don’t foresee.

Then I think this will continue to grow, and maybe one other thing I would say, we already know China constitutes as a market, the highest proportion of what we call luxury tourist expenditures, and that is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As these people die out, we all die out eventually. Then the new middle class will be becoming the upper class, so I think that China is going to impact on international tourism, if you like at the first, what I would call low cost or low priced tours. Already we are finding more and more Chinese people are looking in the middle area, and we also have the luxury tourists.

So without any doubt at all, it’s not a question of does China impact on international tourism it does, but rather you know how much further that it can go on at the moment. Other than say political changes, I think it will continue to grow. And remember one thing, although the Chinese government has recently reduce its growth rate to about 6.5 percent, that is still enormous, compared with every other country in the world. So I am very optimistic about the continuing effect of China, not only on outbound tourism, but also as a receiver of inbound tourists. but also as a receiver of inbound tourists.