Tom Jenkins, executive director, European Tour Operators Association
Gordon Brown has recently been in China to promote trade – and tourism – under the banner ‘Britain welcomes China’.
He is not the first to be seduced by the fabled riches of Kathay. Christopher Columbus wrote “Mercacciones Innumeras” or “incalculable trade” in the margins of Marco Polo’s Travels.
It has been like this for 700 years. Brown’s campaign must be the same campaign Tessa Jowell launched three years ago when the UK won Approved Destination Status.
This permitted ‘ordinary’ people to spend more than twice the average Chinese salary on a short holiday to the UK. Not many took up the opportunity.
New markets should be cherished. And China provides us with groups. But China is a largely poor country, with few cultural links with the UK.
Yet fervent hope is placed in its ability to deliver tourists to Britain.
Tourism is the ultimate utopian solution to every bad business idea. Who is going to buy my product? Tourists.
We buy all China’s products, and what will it give us in return? Tourists.
Despite the hype, China is a comparatively small market, growing at a modest pace. Some may have noticed that when flight BA038 landed at Heathrow last week, from Beijing, it was half full.
Columbus may have lost his status as the founding father of the New World. But anyone who goes in search of China and discovers North America is a hero for 21st century tourism.
