Marketing To Chinese Tourists
The World Tourism Organization recently conducted a study which projected that China would become the one of the largest markets for tourism within the next seven years. The total revenue from tourism in China last year was well over $150 billion.
At last months International Tourism Fair in Beijing, Cape Verde was one of more than seven hundred exhibitors from over eighty different countries, agencies of travel, as well as foreign and Chinese offices of tourism, there to promote themselves as tourism destinations and with a view to attracting not only Chinese tourists by potential investors too.
According to the secretary of the embassy in Beijing for Cape Verde, Jose Correia, “the potential for tourism in China is among the highest, and the intention is to attract tourists from China to Cape Verde and help Chinese companies find an interest in the packages of Cape Verde.”
The travel marketplace is an industry which is rapidly expanding in China alongside India and Latin America as the citizens of these developing nations begin to enjoy increased personal wealth.
With this summers Beijing Olympics as a launch pad, China has been enjoying double-digit growth in its own tourism figures which have doubled in the past five years. China is expected to overtake France already threatened by new emerging resorts, as the number one tourist destination by 2020 and number two Spain within a decade. The Chinese capital is preparing to receive 500,000 overseas visitors during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games from August 8-24, up from 350,000 visitors in August 2006.
This year alone China’s tourism industry is expected to generate US$78 billion, 2.5 percent of GDP, a figure that could rise to US$277 billion by 2017, according to the World Tourism Organisation. Ignore the tourism potential of China at your own peril !
