The Chinese are a–coming!
View(s):They may be loud and easy to identify and they are the world’s largest travelling force and every destination is waiting to grab a share of the Chinese holidaymakers but Sri Lanka has a problem with them.
The authorities are currently working out a plan to ensure that unfair trade practices would not be entertained in the tourism industry especially in the wake of the Chinese that have set up shop as tour operators and grab the money from the entire value chain from Chinese tourists visiting Sri Lanka.
The issue is that of selling the destination at only cost price with tour operators compelled to recover their profits from the commissions received from shops that they take tourists to.
The issue with the Chinese is that they not only travel to tour the country but later set up shop to bring in more of their own nationals to the destination giving competition to the local tour operators that operate on a profit, the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Harith Perera told the Business Times.
In this zero-based tourism concept the tour operator is forced to sell at cost and then recover from the commissions given by the shops that cater to the tourists. In fact even the shops would be owned by some Chinese, he explained.
He pointed out, “Chinese want a share of the entire value chain,” adding that they would even hire their own locals to act as guides during tours thereby sending all the money back home to China with no room for the Sri Lankans to make an earning from these tours.
On the other hand, most local travel agents would be hiring the services of a translator along with a Sri Lankan tour guide to address the tourists visiting the country, he explained.
In the meantime, Mr. Perera noted that the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has come out with a blue print of the new regulations pertaining to these kinds of trade practices; and next it would be submitted to a committee to study the document.
Chinese travel agents in Sri Lanka operate by setting up a company under a license obtained through a Sri Lankan and have now started to approach tour operators who are compelled to take up the offers of zero-based tourism where they sell the packages at cost price.
He noted that tour operators would obtain credit for three months and earn profit through commissions based on purchases by visiting Chinese at shops assigned to be visited. The commission from the shops ranges between 5-40 per cent, Mr. Perera said adding that this concept has now started and is likely to gain momentum but needs to be nipped in the bud.
Jetwing Travels Managing Director Shiromal Cooray explained that most countries have lost their way in the Chinese market.
Thailand has been at the receiving end of the zero tour packages where operators depend on the commissions from the shops with no extra charges as a result of which authorities there have decided to redraw their policy.
“My fear is that we should not wait to get to that point and must take necessary precautions,” she said.
She noted that it was only the Chinese travellers who visited various destinations like Thailand, New Zealand and Australia who would be involved in this type of business and not other travellers.
“We must stop counting the number and go for the absolute earnings – we don’t want too many feet,” she asserted.
Former SLAITO President Devendre Senaratne pointed out, “Personally I don’t like it since it is eating into our members’ business – but hotels are earning something than nothing in some of the low season months.”
He explained that China is a vital aspect of the tourism plan and the increased numbers are welcome but from a travel agency point of view, “we are concerned that tour operators have come and are performing their duties acting as tour operators with some of them showing up a few local names which we request the SLTDA to intervene and look at very professionally.”
In most other countries like Thailand, Chinese are considered the number one tourists that cause much chaos but Sri Lankan travel agents believe they know how to tackle such situations.
“Being noisy and rude we can manage that,” he said adding that however Sri Lanka is not simply catering to Chinese visitors but have a good mix of tourists visiting the country.
Chinese behaviour has been marked for their loudness especially even causing airport check-in-desk meltdowns, assaults on cabin crew and vandalism at archaeological sites according to reports from other destinations. It has been reported that some would even throw a few coins into a jet engine for good luck.
But the problem with the Chinese is that anyone will open their doors to them considering the fact that they have the largest touring population with about 122 million of them making outbound trips in 2016 alone.
The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary General Taleb Rifai has identified the Chinese tourists as “the most powerful single source of change in the tourism industry.”
In fact the UNWTO notes that Chinese make 4.4 billion trips each year becoming the leading global outbound market with over 135 million international departures.
The potential of the Chinese market is far greater because only six per cent of Chinese people are said to own a passport and Mr. Rifai had reportedly stated they expect 200 million Chinese to travel abroad in just a few years’ time.