Each year, European destinations welcome about 10 million Chinese visitors. But with growth rates falling and competition increasing, the need to understand the source market better has found greater resonance with European tourism operators.
In other words, the low-hanging fruits have been picked, now you need to climb a ladder to get to the rest of the fruits in the tree. The rungs of the ladder are market research, product adaptation and marketing. The European Union started the World Bridge Tourism (WBT) project last year, led by the European Tourism Commission (ETC), an association of 32 national tourism organizations, and the European Tourism Association (ETOA). WBT is seen as the “curtain raiser” for the 2018 EU–China Tourism Year (ECTY2018), a tourism initiative developed last summer between the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
Within the WBT project a survey was produced which analyzed user-generated content in 26,000 Chinese social media reviews about European attractions and activities. The main result the survey found was that the Chinese image of Europe as a destination is a mix of old and new components. Europe is still seen as an important shopping destination, but also as a museum of history and culture. Chinese travelers are drawn to the image of the exotic and fairy tale-like Europe, characterized by castles, medieval city centers and different cultures with a long history. Therefore Europe is seen as an ideal place for photographers.
The decision of which specific places to visit is often connected to famous people, albeit Europeans from Bach to Siemens or from Ronaldo to Napoleon, or Chinese celebrities blogging about the beauty of European landscapes or the coolness of the latest fashion and nightlife.
Accordingly the three most-mentioned items in the Chinese social media entries in favor of a trip to Europe were “Rich culture and History,” “Beautiful and unpolluted environments” and “many photo opportunities.” The three items which annoyed the visitors most were “Language problems,” “Safety concerns” and “Bad (Chinese) Food.”
Interestingly, the wish of many independent Chinese travelers to be able to interact with the local life and to immerse themselves in Europe’s culture fits very well with the new concept which was published recently by Wonderful Copenhagen, the marketing organization of Denmark’s capital, claiming “The End of Tourism as we know it.” In this concept, destinations are asked to start to think of its visitors as temporary residents, instead of as tourists. As a resident, tourists become part of the community and contribute to it. The shift is that the tourism industry can help visitors to add value to the community, instead of asking permanent residents to exchange their quality of life for money. This is a new move to mitigate the increasing frictions between locals in city destinations like Barcelona, Berlin, Venice, etc. and the huge number of tourists making life miserable for most citizens.
With “immersion” having overtaken sightseeing and even shopping as the main interest for younger individual travelers from China, they may prove again to be instrumental in the change of the shape of an “activity formerly known as tourism” – not only in Europe.
Source link : https://www.forbes.com/sites/profdrwolfganggarlt/2017/02/22/how-chinese-travelers-view-europe/
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Publish date : 2017-02-22 08:00:00
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