The potential of China as the rising star of international tourism has been exaggerated, one WTM speaker will argue tomorrow.
Tom Jenkins, executive director of the European Tour Operators’ Association (Etoa) and a panellist at a session on China’s outbound tourism, feels the Asian giant’s potential as a major tourism source has been overstated.
“China is a really beguiling market, but there are manifold difficulties,” he told Travel Weekly.
“Firstly, it’s still a very poor country. And the burgeoning middle class that we keep hearing about are middle class by Chinese standards, not by Western standards.”
Jenkins said the number of Chinese tourists visiting “geographical Europe”, rather than eastern Russia, is a fraction of the 80 million projected to cross the border by the end of 2012.
“Most of the growth in China’s tourism goes to China, Hong Kong or Macau,” said Jenkins.
“When you strip that out, and travel to other Chinese diaspora destinations like Singapore, and remove the nearer southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, it’s not a very big market.”
Many Chinese visiting Europe do so through business incentives, with only a minority actively choosing to holiday there, he said.
And many visitors were motivated by the 60% tax break on luxury goods, he added.
“We have a market that is contingent on someone else making the decision that you should go there,” said Jenkins.
“It may last for ever, it may carry on growing, but it doesn’t have the dynamics of a typical origin market.”
› China Tourism Forum – Outbound
Tuesday, 16.45-17.30, Room 19, South Gallery