Chinese tourists at the Zaanse Schans in the Netherlands

economy - Chinese tourists in Europe: a killing business

The stories I heard from people who organize the travel business for Chinese tourists to the Netherlands I had already heard how killing the business is. "They do not want a room over 35 euro per night," said one of them
The Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad had this weekend a nice overview of the battlefield and I will translate some of the key information - in stead of linking to a Dutch article. (This article will only be online later).
The Netherlands is sinds September 2004 a so-called "approved destination" and in 2005 96,000 Chinese visited te country - out of the 31 million that actually left mainland China for a holiday.
The number of approved Dutch travel agencies has gone up from 17 in 1998 to more than 300 now, and in the whole of Europe that would be thousands. Decentralization of the travel business in China has caused this downward spiral, making it almost impossible to make a profit on these trips. Travel guides from China often do not get money for their work, but have to pay to get the job. They have to make their money by blackmailing the Chinese tourists out of their money.
In one example a Chinese guide called Zhang had to pay 45 euro per participant. "For tourists from the north you have to pay double, since they spend more," he explained.
Buying is the main target for the Chinese tourists, who do not seem to be interested in a Europe that is perceived to be rather backward compared to their own cities and is often compared to the areas where minorities are living in China.
Experts expect that Chinese tourists will more behave like Russians than like Japanese tourists: they will stay on the schedule of eight countries in ten days for the foreseeable future.