With the advent of a bilateral tourism agreement signed between the US and China at the end of 2007, the Chinese industry was excited about the prospects of a new shining and sought after destination for their clients. Equally excited were the US state and city tourism promotion bodies and private tour operators eager to find a new revenue stream as America’s tourism industry suffers from a global economic downturn. Many tourism promotion bodies opened representative offices or appointed sales representatives in China in anticipation of the tourism boom. From July 2008, Chinese tour groups began to travel to the US on a tourist visas. The weakness of the US Dollar in relation to the Chinese Yuan means stronger purchasing power for Chinese consumers, who are on the whole aspiring to visit the America they see in cinema and television.
We would advise caution in reading too much into this new agreement. Even before it was inked, Chinese traveled to the US on so-called business tour groups and estimates put them at around 400,000 per year. The US authorities expect tourism to grow to 500,000 in 2011. This is a very slow, controlled and unambitious figure that makes it difficult for destinations in the US to realize returns on their investment in the Chinese market quickly.

With the United Kingdom signing the ADS agreement in January 2005, all EU member states are now ADS destinations. The non-EU member states Switzerland, Iceland and Norway have also signed bilateral ADS agreements with the Chinese government in 2004.
As a result, Chinese certified travel agencies are allowed to promote and organise tourist groups (5 people and above) to all European destinations as well as Turkey. With these ADS agreements, the biggest hurdle for opening up the Chinese market has been overcome.
Europe is considered one of the favourite destinations for Chinese. It is regarded as a multi-cultural society with a long history and diverse civilisation. When travelling to Europe, Chinese want to visit at least three different countries. Tours take up to ten countries within two weeks and hardly ever visit one country. Within Europe, France, Italy and Germany are the most popular destinations.
In Europe, Germany has been receiving most of the Chinese visitors. It is pro-active in its approach to promote tourism and encourage business links. Moreover, Germany has taken the lead by signing ADS agreement bilaterally two years before the rest of the EU. They have been generous with their visa regulations and in turn gained an advantage over other European destinations.
France is also very active in promoting its destination. The cultural year of France in China supported by both governments has had a great impact. France has for years been issuing visa for tourism groups even while this was not officially agreed upon by the government. In 2008 tourism to France from China suffered a setback due to political sensitivities involving Tibet and the Olympic Torch relay through Paris. An unofficial travel boycott against France was allegedly instigated by the Beijing tourism board leading to a dramatic drop in tourism from China.
Switzerland has been successful in destination marketing despite having no direct flights, not belonging to the EU or Schengen visa agreement and the relatively late approval of ADS. The Chinese traveller has become very interested in Switzerland thanks to extensive marketing and promotion.
Italy has been reluctant to issue tourism visas in the past, but is implementing the ADS procedure now to conform to the agreement, resulting in much higher arrival figures. But as Italy has a small number of direct flights, it is at a disadvantage.

Some themes for European destinations in 2006
•    London: 2008 the Year of China
•    Germany: 2006 FIFA World Cup
•    Austria: 250 Anniversary of Mozart
•    Direct flights are a major selling point in destination marketing. Choice of tour operator in Europe and number of nights in each destination are decided by the first port of arrival.
•    “Visa shopping” in the past meant agents would bargain with different consulates to find the cheapest and simplest visa application and with it the choice of first destination. With the implementation of the overall ADS procedure this should be not be the case anymore, as all the embassies and consulates are supposed to apply the same rules.
•    Nevertheless, visa shopping still exists as some embassies and consulates process visas faster (e.g. larger staff capacity at their visa departments), have better facilities (such as special opening hours for ADS visa couriers), communicate in a more transparent way, are more service-oriented or are less fussy with visa processing (lower rejection rates). All contribute to the image of a certain destination and have an impact on sales.

Statistics on China are, in a word, confusing. The arrival figures as registered by the receiving countries and the departure figures as registered by the customs in China do not match at all. The main reason for this is the fact that Chinese customs only register the first destination upon leaving China. As so many travellers leave China at the border with Hong Kong, it is registered as the first destination, regardless of where the actual destination may be.

For example, in 2004 the Chinese customs registered 420,000 departures for Singapore, while the Singapore statistics show 880,000 arrivals from China .
Top 10 Destinations
Among the top 10 destinations, the only non-Asian countries are USA and Australia. USA has not signed an ADS agreement with China on tourism. Australia was the first western country to sign the ADS agreement with China and has done extensive promotion in China. Australia is not shown in 2004, since most flights to Australia go through Hong Kong, which is then registered as the destination,

2007 Chinese departures to world regions according to Chinese customs
Destination     Arrivals
Asia    36.3 million
Europe    2 million
Americas    1 million
Oceania    0.5 million
Africa    0.3 million

Europe is not in the list of top ten destinations though it would, if counted as one destination in the statistics. The European Union member countries do not keep uniform statistics on Chinese arrivals. The passports of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong all have the name China on them, which leads to confusion at the destination. Lack of unified computer data from all EU countries makes the statistician’s job very difficult.