International tourists to Europe accounted for 51.4 percent of the global tourist arrivals in 2015, with 609 million tourists visiting the continent's 50 countries, 5 percent more than the year before.

According to the latest World Tourism Barometer issued by the World Tourism Organization, five of the top 10 international tourism destinations by revenue are from Europe, and six of the top 10 international tourism destinations by number of visitors are also in Europe. These countries are France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Germany and the UK.

Among last year's tourism numbers, 12.5 million were from China, according to data shared by the European Travel Commission (ETC) at a press conference in Shanghai Monday, becoming the biggest tourism markets for many European nations large and small.

"The number of Chinese outbound tourists exceeded 100 million in 2015. Compared with Japan and India, China dominates Asia's outbound travel market," said Frantisek Reismuller, director of the ETC's China operations group and director of CzechTourism Shanghai Office.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Europe increased 30 percent on the previous year, becoming second only to the US. Reismuller believes that China will be the biggest source of outbound tourists to Europe within the very near future.

Free Independent Travel

Talking about the characteristic of Chinese tourists, Reismuller said he sees diverse ways of traveling, including more authenticity and tranquility, and a growing interest in Middle and Eastern Europe, which Chinese believe offer postcard-esque small towns and vast blue skies.

"We are seeing more 'FIT' tourists from China, which means Free Independent Travel. It used to be big groups, but now the ratio of FIT travelers and tour groups is about 50-50," Reismuller told the Global Times. "There are also so-called semi-FIT travelers, where small groups of Chinese tourists apply for individual visas."

Reismuller added that Chinese tourists usually make their first trips overseas to more popular Western European countries like Germany or France before becoming brave enough to explore smaller, Eastern European countries like Czech Republic, which has recently experienced a boom in Chinese tourism due to its unspoiled sites.

In 2015, more than 280,000 Chinese tourists visited Czech Republic, an annual growth rate of 35.3 percent, the highest in the past three years. Czech Republic expects to receive 400,000 Chinese tourists in 2016.

The Consulate General of Czech Republic in Shanghai issued 12,541 visas in 2015, 66 percent more than the year prior. The number of visas issued in Shanghai in January of this year has already exceeded the total number of visa issued till March 2015.

In response to this growing demand, the Consulate General of Czech Republic opened a Czech Visa Center in Shanghai in October 2015, making the visa process easier for residents from Shanghai Municipality, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.

Ferrari, BMW & Volvo

Established in 1948, ETC's mission has been to develop Europe into a sustainable tourist destination while promoting the tourism of its 32 member countries in overseas markets. During the press conference, representatives from the Scandinavian Tourist Board and tourism offices of Finland, Serbia and Belgium also presented their country's respective tourism experiences.

But it was Czech Republic who offered the audience the event's most amusing metaphors. "Europe is basically divided into wine-drinking countries, beer-drinking countries and hard liquor-drinking countries," Richard Krpac, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Shanghai, said during the ETC event. "I apologize for being unorthodox in trying to simplify Europe for you."

The wine-drinking countries which Krpac speaks of are in the southern parts of Europe including Spain, France, Italy, Serbia and Greece. These countries were compared to a Ferrari automobile by Krpac, "something exciting and fast and with beautiful design."

Meanwhile, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands are countries that Krpac said drink beer, likening them to a BMW: "strong, reliable and fast."

Moving up to North Europe, Krpac said that Poland, Sweden, Norway and the UK belong to the hard liquor-consuming region, which he described as a Volvo, "not the most exciting car in the world, but safe, reliable and practical."

In his concluding remarks, Krpac said that there is, however, one single European nation that can combine a Ferrari, a BMW and a Volvo in a single visit.

"In the middle of Europe, there is a country whose north loves hard liquor, whose west likes beer, and whose south imbibes wine. That is Czech Republic!"

 

 

(From above) Frantisek Reismuller, director of the ETC's China operations group and Richard Krpac, Consul General of the Czech Republic in Shanghai, speak at the press conference.

Photos: Yang Lan/GT

 
Newspaper headline: Authentic & tranquil