How the middle class of China changes the global tourism industry

They are young, have money and want to travel around the world – mainly as individual tourists and not in a group.

This is the new generation of tourists of China's emerging middle class. Unlike their parents, most of whom had probably traveled only to Hong Kong, their goal is to visit the most beautiful and expensive European cities!

It is estimated at an international level that one out of ten tourists traveling is Chinese, while in 2013 97.3 million Chinese people traveled abroad and half of them traveled for pleasure.

However, Chinese don't “conquer” the world only as tourists but as the best consumers since they are spending more money than any other tourist.

Specifically, Chinese tourists spent a total of 129 billion dollars on their vacation outside China in 2013, whereas Americans follow in second place by having spent 86 billion dollars last year .

But Chinese people face an obstacle preventing them to leave their country and travel abroad. This obstacle is the time consuming procedures for getting a visa.

According to data gathered by the European Association of Travel Agents, 24% of Chinese have postponed their trip abroad due to these delays in 2010.

The United States of America simplified their visa process allowing tourists to receive their visas from 99 bank branches, instead of getting it from the American embassy. As a result, the flow of Chinese tourists increased significantly.

On the contrary, Britain which has more time consuming visa procedures since it does not belong to Schengen area, receives only one-ninth of Chinese tourists comparing to France.

However, big stores in most European cities, such as Printemps in Paris and Harrrods in London, know exactly what they must do to attract these “golden” customers.

Europe tries to attract the wealthy travelers from the East using various “tricks” such as employing staff who speaks Mandarin, using inscriptions even in Mandarin dialect to facilitate the Chinese tourists and having specific entries to facilitate them when they travel in groups.