IT is often said, “The Chinese are everywhere”. Indeed, tourists from China can be seen in droves everywhere, from the designer stores of Paris to the old gardens of Kyoto, street markets in Seoul and the beaches of Thailand.

These days, nobody will dispute the fact that Chinese tourists are a force to be reckoned with.

According to the United Nations World Travel Organization, Chinese outbound travellers continued to grow rapidly by 10% to 128 million, with a total spend of US$292 billion in 2015.

China Outbound Tourism Research Institute’s data shows that China’s outbound travel is growing at a slower pace with some 64 million people travelling out of the mainland in the first half of last year, an increase of only 3.4% over the same period in 2015.

Although the pace is slower than expected, the institute notes that the decline is mostly confined to the Greater China area of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, which saw a 7% drop in visitors from the mainland.

“The rest of the world still enjoyed a healthy 16% increase with Thailand, South Korea and Japan witnessing the highest numbers of additional arrivals in absolute numbers,” it says.

China’s outbound tourist numbers are projected to be at about 62 million in the second half of 2016, a 3.9% increase over the same period in 2015.

What this means is that Chinese travellers are going further afield, preferring to skip Hong Kong and Macau for other destinations.

Travel China Guide says Chinese tourists now prefer nearby Asian countries, given the relatively shorter journey and affordability. Additionally, fear of terrorist attacks in Europe has led more Chinese to visit Asian countries.

The top seven outbound markets for Chinese tourists last year were Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the US and Indonesia.

The travel website also notes changes in Chinese travellers’ preferences — from tour bus holidays in the past to spending more time and money enjoying themselves while abroad by shopping, exploring local attractions and dining.

Indeed, China loomed large in discussions and briefings at the recent Asean Tourism Forum 2017 in Singapore.

All 10 Asean members highlighted data on how much growth and potential there is to be had with Chinese tourists.

Chinese tourists are the largest inbound markets for Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In other Asean countries, the Chinese are among the top three tourist arrivals.

They are Singapore’s largest group of tourist arrivals at 2.637 million from January to November last year, a 36% increase over the same period in 2015.

Singapore Tourism Board executive director for communications Oliver Chong says this trend is due to the strong growth of middle-class Chinese people who have a great propensity to travel.

The Chinese are also the largest group of inbound tourists for Thailand, with over 8.8 million of them visiting the country last year. This number is vastly larger than the next few largest markets, namely Malaysia (three million), Japan (1.4 million), the UK (one million) and Singapore (one million).

“The China market is the big spenders. They have big wallets. Everyone else is average,” says Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Yuthasak Supasorn.

Chinese travellers also top the list of international arrivals in Vietnam, at 2.7 million visitors last year, which is over a quarter of the 10.01 million international tourists who visited the country during that period.

Crucially, the total number of Chinese tourists is equivalent to the next three biggest tourist markets for Vietnam — South Korea (1.54 million), Japan (740,000) and the US (552,000).

Indonesia last year saw a crucial shift in tourist trends with Chinese tourists outnumbering Singaporeans to be the top inbound market for the first time.

From January to November 2016, Chinese tourist arrivals in Indonesia grew 26.17% to 1.34 million from the same period in 2015. Singapore tourist arrivals to Indonesia, meanwhile, fell 9.36% to 1.249 million.

Indonesian Ministry of Tourism’s Rizki Handayan notes that Indonesia will continue efforts to attract Chinese tourists to visit the country, particularly areas apart from Bali and Jakarta, as the country seeks to develop more tourist destinations.

“All countries are looking to the China market. Most of our marketing budget is now for China, not just its main cities but also its second-tier cities ... Chinese Muslim tourists and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and events) market,” says Rizki, who is the ministry’s director of promotions for Southeast Asia.

Myanmar, meanwhile, saw Chinese tourists emerge as the second largest inbound market after the Thais, who traditionally are Myanmar’s main source of foreign visitors.

As for the Philippines, China is only the third largest market, at 630,000 visitors last year, after South Korea (1.33 million) and the US (772,000). Nevertheless, Philippine tourism officials hope that the Chinese numbers will increase as the relations between the two countries improve.

Rolando Canizal, Philippines’ Ministry of Tourism Undersecretary for Administration and Special Concerns, notes that his country is pursuing a bilateral agreement with China to facilitate more arrivals.

For Laos, Chinese tourists are the largest inbound market after Asean visitors. Asean visitors, mostly Thais, totalled 2.28 million between January and September 2016.

China, meanwhile, saw a 4% increase in visitors to 399,556 million during the same period.

Chinese tourists made up 16.7% of all international visitors to Cambodia last year, making them the second largest group. Chinese tourist arrivals grew 18.8% to 736,502 from 2015.

For Malaysia, Chinese tourists were the third largest group at 1.755 million visitors in the first 10 months of last year.

Malaysia’s largest tourist groups were still the Singaporeans (10.96 million) and Indonesians (2.46 million). Nevertheless, the growth in Chinese tourists was a record 27% year on year.

Malaysia’s Economic Report 2016/17 notes that Chinese tourists contributed 6.5% to tourist arrivals, or 1.7 million, in 2015, with a total spend of RM5.7 billion.

Apart from China’s middle-class appetite for travel, the growing numbers of Chinese travellers are due to improved air connectivity between second and third-tier cities as well as a more relaxed visa requirement for the Chinese.

According to China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, 52 countries have visa on arrival or visa-free policies for Chinese travellers. The Chinese also spent €195 billion in 2015.

“The Chinese love to visit places by the sea, especially if they come from parts of China that are landlocked. When they come, they want to be near the water,” says a travel industry insider who is familiar with the Chinese market.

Nevertheless, dependence on Chinese travellers’ appetite can be a double-edged sword as places like Macau and Hong Kong have learnt.

Both places were once popular with Chinese tourists, given their proximity to the mainland. Macau’s and Hong Kong’s economy blossomed in part due to the vibrant tourist activity.

But, in recent years, Hong Kong’s retail and travel-related service sectors have felt the effects of not being the destination of choice for Chinese travellers. Retail and hotel rates are reportedly lower than in the glory days of the influx of Chinese tourists.

Malaysia, too, has felt the cold shoulder in the aftermath of the MH370 tragedy, which had 153 Chinese nationals on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Many Chinese tourists were seen to be boycotting Malaysia in protest against what they claimed as insufficient action to recover the missing plane.

Indeed, Chinese arrivals to Malaysia dropped 11.04% to 1.61 million in 2014 from 2013. This was the first time China tourist arrivals fell in the last 10 years, after consecutive years of growth, peaking at almost 1.8 million in 2013.

Now that Malaysia is enjoying warmer bilateral ties with China and the billions in investments pouring in from China, tourist arrivals are on the upward trend again (see chart on Page 51).

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