Thanks to growing disposal income of especially urban dwellers in China, traveling abroad is becoming a more popular option for spending the national holidays such as Chinese New Year (one week in mid February this year) and National Day (October 1st - 7th). Research shows outbound Chinese tourists reached 70.3 million in 2011, as compared to 16.6 million in 2002, a stunning four-time increase in only 10 years.
In 2008, 2.6% of Chinese chose to travel to Africa, compared to 8.8% to Americas and 67.8% to Asia. It shows Africa as a tourist destination is not unattractive to Chinese tourists. South Africa has seen the largest inflow of Chinese. As 59,197 Chinese visited South Africa in 2011, the number is believed to have passed the 100,000 in 2012, according to Business Report. The number of Chinese tourists in Kenya is also on the rise. As a tourist preferred destination for Sofari, Kenya has seen the number of Chinese tourists tripled within 5 years between 2005 and 2010, reaching 35,000. This number is projected to grow, as more and more Chinese have visited the U.S. and Europe and are seeking the next non-traditional destination.
In which way do Chinese travel to Africa? Although these years a growing number of Chinese starts to lose interest in guided tours in general, still Africa is considered by many Chinese as a dangerous and unknown place where guided tour is the safest option to explore the continent. There is no lack of tourist agencies taking Chinese to Africa, and competition is clearly fierce. According to Beijing Youth Travel Service, a one-week guided tour in Africa costs only about CNY9,000 to CNY12,000 (US$1450 to US$ 1950). Note this number includes return international flight (usually US$1,000 from China to major African cities), hotel accommodation (3-5 stars), food (mostly Chinese food) and transportation! I will explain in my future post about why and how the price could be so low.
Self-guided tours, on the other hand, is not unpopular. However, it requires a lot of online research before departure. Fortunately, development of Chinese social network led to blossoming online resources about overseas travel. Common platforms include specific websites, internet forums and weibo (Chinese version of Twitter). Mafengwo, a popular self-guided tour website in China, for instance, allow Chinese tourists to post their experiences and photos when traveling independently overseas. This also includes a wide range of African nations. The personal stories shared online are de facto all-you-need-to-know information of traveling to that country. Mafengwo also allows its users to post their future itinerary in Africa to recruit their own team to travel together.
In my future posts I am going to talk about the following issues:
- What are the shopping habits of Chinese tourists in Africa;
- How travel agencies play a role in China-Africa tourism;
- What African countries can do to benefit from the growing income from the Chinese tourists.
|
