Mass tourism from China scares hosts

Source:Global Times Published: 2015-1-8 20:18:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT



Recently, Chinese tourists' behavior abroad has become a very hot topic. In December, a couple who were not happy with flight attendants' response when they asked to swap seats got out of control on a plane on the way back to Nanjing from Thailand. She attacked a flight attendant with hot water. He stood in the aisle and cursed loudly. She threatened to jump out of the plane's window. He threatened to blow it up. Their stunning performance forced the pilot to turn back to Bangkok half way through the flight.

The two clowns have been punished. But the shock waves created by the behavior and the examination of Chinese behaving badly around the world don't seem to have subsequently died down. Similar brouhahas involving Chinese tourists gone wild were described by many shamed bloggers and reporters: They soaked their feet in the fountain at the Louvre in Paris, they climbed on the back of the bronze bull on Wall Street, they stole pillows and towels from hotels, they threw their garbage to the lions while on safari in Africa.

Many concluded that these tourists were hurting the nation's image and shaming all Chinese. This concern is not unfounded. The number of Chinese tourists traveling abroad and the amount of money they spend have increased exponentially in recent years. According to the estimates of the China Tourism Academy, 116 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2014 and they spent a total $155 billion, 20 percent more than the previous year. In the US, 1.8 million Chinese visited the country in 2013, and they brought $21.1 billion into the economy. 

These numbers make Chinese tourists a magnet for international attention, and any member of this group can single handedly make headlines by cutting the line, spitting or fighting in public.

Of course, it is unfair to blame the entire group for individual incidents. But generalization is unfortunately a common response as people perceive new and unfamiliar matters. An American criminal justice expert once told me why people of color are the majority of victims of false conviction, it is the same as if someone lost a wallet in a taxi in Manhattan and you ask him what the taxi looks like, he'd tell you "yellow." (For readers who don't know, all taxis in Manhattan are yellow.) General impression is what sticks in the memory.

But a few bad potatoes, the imperfect perceptions of humans, and the sensation-chasing media are not the only culprits we should blame for our tarnished name.

In the spring of 2009, soufang.com organized 40 millionaires on visits to five American cities to do house hunting. They spent 11 days here and triggered a lot of media coverage.

That was only a beginning. In 2010, a few tour agencies in Beijing and Guangzhou organized more than 1,000 people to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the US. The group, which was said to be the biggest Chinese tour group to the US ever, was divided into four subgroups and visited different places in the country before they all gathered together in New York to make an even bigger splash on the third day of the lunar New Year. 

By May 2014, a Chinese tour group of 7,000 people visited Los Angeles. Their average spending of $10,000 per person was higher than most. And they raised a Chinese national flag and sang the Chinese anthem on the street together. One of the organizers of the group told the media that such large-scale tour groups were a trend and he predicted there would be more such groups with even more people.

Chinese tourists, like tourists from any other country, have diverse backgrounds, tastes and personalities. But 7,000 of them together feel like an invasion to locals in any part of the world. When the Japanese travel in groups they only number a few hundred or significantly less. The Americans, who are not known as the best behaved tourists, have rarely been seen in groups in hundreds, let alone thousands, unless they are sports fans. Anyone wondering about bad behavior should have witnessed the boorish behavior by the British when traveling abroad, particularly back in the 1970s and 80s. But they don't often travel in big groups either.

It is clear that these high-profile Chinese tour groups were formed on purpose. They are there to make a thundering announcement to declare the arrival of mass Chinese tourism. It worked for a period of time. All of these activities got great receptions from their hosts. In New York, famous store Macy's put on a lion dancing show and the Empire State Building cleared out for the 1,000 people from China. And in Los Angeles, the local government rolled out the red carpet to welcome the 7,000 people group.

But if the trend continues, the result will only be confusion, stereotyping and generalization - plus a big dose of resentment.

The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com

Posted in: Viewpoint, Rong Xiaoqing

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