During the recent May Day holiday, Ren Hongjuan, who works for ARD-Germany Radio Beijing, traveled with her husband to Spain. They visited Madrid and some ancient towns in the area. Instead of living in hotels, they chose to camp.
Since her first trip abroad to the Netherlands in 1994, Ren has traveled to Germany, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Myanmar. "We plan to go to Egypt, Greece and India in the future," Ren told Beijing Review.
When Ren first traveled abroad, few Chinese could be seen. She was often asked, "Are you Japanese or Korean?" But now, millions of Chinese travel outside China, just like Ren.
China's ever-growing outbound travel market has become Asia's largest source of tourists, says the Pacific Asia Tourism Association (PATA). According to statistics from the National Tourism Administration of China (NTA), about 34.52 million Chinese people traveled overseas in 2006.
A tourism boom
The forecast from the World Travel Fair 2007 predicts that some 37.4 million Chinese will travel abroad this year, an increase of 10 percent over last year. The World Travel Organization also estimates that China will be the fourth largest tourist source nation in 2020, and that in 15 years, 100 million Chinese people will travel abroad each year.
The major reason for the increasing number of outbound travelers is China's GDP growth. Wang Qiyan, Director of the Leisure Economy Research Institute of Renmin University, said that when a country's average GDP exceeds $3,000, it experiences a tourism boom. In 2006, as Shanghai's average GDP reached $7,490, more than 2 million locals made trips abroad.
China's increasing number of outbound travelers has attracted international travel organizations worldwide. By the end of 2006, a total of 132 foreign countries and regions had opened travel markets to China, allowing Chinese citizens to travel to their countries. According to the NTA, 19 overseas travel agencies currently have offices in China.
Three U.S. states-California, Hawaii and Nevada-have tourism offices in China. Besides these states, the California city of Los Angeles has a travel office in China as well. According to Caroline Beteta, Executive Director of the California Travel and Tourism Commission, China will most likely become the state's largest overseas tourist source in the next decade. In European countries, Britain will attract at least 200,000 Chinese tourists by 2010 and 500,000 by 2020, according to Sir Michael Lickiss, chairman of the British Tourist Authority.
Diversified destinations
"Southeast Asia is the most popular destination," said Li Weimin, Press Manager with Shanghai's Spring International Travel Agency. "A majority of our customers choose to go there." Li attributed the boom of Southeast Asian routes to proximity, relatively low cost, balmy coastal weather and, in many cases, the availability of Chinese language services. "These routes are really hot, and it seems no matter how many airline seats we book, we can sell them to that number of tourists," said Li.
According to a survey released at the International Forum on Chinese Outbound Tourism hosted by the Beijing Tourism Administration in November 2006, most Chinese outbound tourists travel within close proximity of China. The survey said that Asian countries and regions account for 90.4 percent of Chinese outbound travelers' destinations. Eight of the top 10 outbound destinations of Chinese tourists are in Asia.
But other continents are starting to catch up.
"There are more and more high-income customers who have been to the Asian destinations and are willing to see different places," said Sun Changwei, General Manager of the Outbound Department of China Youth Travel Service (CYTS). "The number of visitors to rich countries such as Britain and Australia is on the rise, and I think there is still big potential."
He added that tours to new destinations contributed significantly to the 20-30 percent yearly growth in CYTS's outbound travel business.
However, some travel professionals say they are seeing evidence that the nouveau riche spending image of Chinese tourists is gradually changing. "There are an increasing number of customers who don't like tours with heavy itineraries, and more and more are favoring the ones that give them more free time to see and taste where they are," said Liu of the Beijing CITIC Travel.
Shanghai's Spring International is among the travel agencies adjusting their itineraries to changing tastes. It recently promoted a 10-day tour to France and Italy in contrast to the traditional European routes, which may cover seven or eight countries in a week.
"An increasing number of outbound travelers don't want to travel for travel's sake-they want more leisure and fun," said Li of the Spring International. "The ‘nouveau riche' style of travel with heavy schedules and extravagant shopping will be outdated some day."
On a spending spree
Coupled with the zeal to go abroad is the zeal to buy abroad. Early in 2005, Chinese tourists spent the most in the world when traveling abroad. According to Global Refund, an international tax-refund service, Chinese outbound travelers spent $987 on average, and the monthly shopping expenditure could total $235 million.
The consumption capability of Chinese travelers has largely been improved. "Ten years ago when we traveled to Europe, we dared not buy too many things and spend too much because we felt the prices were too high for us," Ren told Beijing Review. "But now we feel it's OK, for example, to take a taxi which costs some 10 euros."
"We discovered that many of our customers, after paying for the tour package that accounts for 30-50 percent of their budgets, would spend most of the rest of their money on shopping, which is quite different from Western tourist habits of spending on accommodations and services," said Sun.
Travel professionals say there are many reasons for the Chinese outbound tourist shopping spree. "If you look at some ordinary products in a foreign shop, you will probably find a ‘Made in China' tag," said Liu Yang, an outbound tour manager with the Beijing CITIC Travel Co. Ltd. "There are not many things worth buying except for those top luxury brands."
"To most Chinese, the chance to travel abroad is rare, so when they get there, they want to buy something as a memento or something they can show off to their families and friends," said Song Rui, a researcher on tourism with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "There are business travelers who have their accommodations paid by others, which gives them a bigger budget to buy things, and there are tourists who have to select things for their friends at home."
More luxury trips
With improved consumption capability, Chinese tourists are not satisfied with conventional travel and are searching for new styles of traveling.
Rovos Rail, a luxury train trip operator in South Africa, started market development in China in the second half of 2005, aiming at the high-end and tailored tourism market. Up to now, more than 40 Chinese tourists have traveled via Rovos trains, said Jin Xiaoxu, China representative of Rovos Rail. He said the package trips, often 10 days long, cost 70,000 yuan per person on average, with the cheapest costing about 45,000 yuan. Many of the customers are from high-income families in developed costal areas such as Jiangsu and Guangdong, traveling for family gatherings or for such events as honeymoons.
As opposed to its customers from other countries who are older, most of Rovos' Chinese customers are in their 40s. In Jin's opinion, this is because in China the accumulation of wealth has been rapid and the development of the luxury travel market is abnormal.
"We have no specific target of growth in China, but we do believe the Chinese market will expand very rapidly," Jin told Beijing Review. He hopes that customers that have enjoyed Rovos trips can be its best promoters. In his view, the Chinese market is worthy of observation and further input.
"It's still a sowing season for us, not a harvest one," Jin concluded. | 
