How the Chinese Learned to Embrace Independent Travel  Chinese tourists take photos as they visit the Blacksmith's Shop wedding venue in Gretna in southern Scotland August 22, 2013. Independent travel has become increasingly popular with young, affluent Chinese people. (Toby Melville/Reuters) For years, the prevailing image of Chinese travelers was this: masses of red-hat wearing people organized in tour groups, pouring out of big, noisy buses. But this stereotype is now out of date. According to a recent report from Hotels.com’s Chinese International Travel Monitor, 70 percent of Chinese tourists traveling abroad are now choosing to go independently. So what’s behind this trend? For one, Chinese tourists these days are young: Travelers under 45 now account for 90 percent of China’s market share, according to the China Tourism Academy. And while those matching hats seemed like an attractive souvenir to older generations, to a growing number of sophisticated travelers, they, and the tour groups giving them out, just seem passe. “There’s been a big cultural shift. This generation is embracing individuality in every aspect: ‘I choose my own job, I choose my own boyfriend, so why not my own travel?’” says Mei Zhang, the founder of Beshan, one of the few Chinese operators offering high-end, personalized, private tours. “Media is playing a part too: On one hand, bus tours are depicted as dumb—you wouldn’t see a celebrity caught dead on one of these. On the other hand, bloggers such as Gu Yue (who backpacked from Beijing to Berlin to see his girlfriend) are creating a huge amount of romantic adulation for the idea of life out on the open road.” Much of what made group tours appealing to previous generations no longer applies to China’s savvy new urbanites. Their parents, and tourists from less-developed parts of China, value the security that organized tours provide, especially in countries where Mandarin isn’t spoken. But these new independent travelers are not nervous first-timers. They have traveled extensively before and are comfortable using foreign languages, having often studied or worked abroad. “Many Chinese travelers have already outgrown the domestic tour industry,” says Professor Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. “Most operators only offer standard tours of things they have already seen. Only a very select few are offering something more sophisticated or are catering to special interests such as wildlife watching. There have also been a lot of bad experiences with tour groups and forced shopping trips.” In addition, the growth in online resources has encouraged independent travel. Sites such as Ctrip, Elong and Kuxun allow users to search for and book flights and hotels themselves, while others such as Qyer and Mafengwo offer free, Lonely Planet-esque practical guides and forums that help Chinese-speakers to plan their own adventure. Meanwhile, websites such as Zanadu offer access to the kind of “aspirational accommodation” that is seen often in films, glossy magazines and billboards (think stilted private suites hovering atop the ocean in the Maldives) but is rarely offered as part of a tour itinerary. Zan Wu, the founder of Zanadu, says, “Our typical users are not necessarily super rich. They might be white collar workers making 15,000 RMB [$2,460] a month, but they’ll happily spend $250 a night on a hotel. They feel comfortable about their income and their income growth in the future. They like to enjoy life.” As luxury accommodation becomes just as important to these travelers as ticking off the sights, money is redirected from traditional tour operators to hotels. These hotels recognize that the Chinese are now the world’s largest source of tourism dollars and are quickly learning how to accommodate them in the form of Chinese language websites, Mandarin-speaking staff, and smaller touches such as offering Chinese food at breakfast and Chinese tea and television in the guest rooms. Yet perhaps the biggest reason that more Chinese people are traveling independently abroad is that it has simply become a lot easier to obtain visas. As late as the 1980s, only Chinese people on business and official trips were permitted to travel overseas, with government approval needed for every single visit. Then, in the 1990s, the government introduced the unique Approved Destination Status System, which paved the way for group travel abroad. Soon thereafter, China’s neighbors began issuing individual “leisure visas” and visas on arrival, but most Western nations were reluctant to follow suit. “Consulates resisted issuing individual visas because of the perceived risk of illegal immigration. With the group visas, the tour operator could be held responsible if someone didn’t return to China,” explains Roy Graff, the managing director of the tourism consultancy China Contact. But with the rise of affluent Chinese tourists, attitudes are changing. “The watershed moment was in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. These events put the wealth of China on the global stage,” says Graff, adding that “Western countries realized that the segments of the population that can afford to travel abroad are already part of a developed economy and aren’t likely to overstay their visas and disappear.” Nowadays, Chinese citizens who have a couple of stamps in their passports are highly likely to obtain visas for Western countries, who themselves are competing for Chinese tourists. Last week, on a trip to China with London Mayor Boris Johnson, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a relaxation of the country’s visa rules for Chinese citizens. And last year, U.S. President Obama announced Washington’s goal of increasing visa-processing capacity in China by 40 percent, an ambitious target, but one justified by the roughly 1.5 million Chinese people who visited the country in 2012, a gain of 35.3 percent on the previous year. The sheer scale and speed at which China’s tourism industry is developing makes it unique. However, the country is not the first in which independent travel has made inroads on group tours. In the 1980s, Japanese tourists became famous for traveling en masse throughout Europe and North America, toting expensive cameras and hopping into and out of tour buses. However, that model soon gave way to more independent forms of travel. Even still, the analogy is not perfect: “Japan is a smaller country with a more homogenous culture and economy. When they rose, they all rose together,” says Graff. “But what is happening in China is more a tiered segmentation than a shift. Younger, more experienced travelers, from higher income brackets, are going abroad and traveling independently but at the same time we are seeing a new wave of travelers from second and third tier cities going on group tours, mostly within China.” China’s developing tourism market is perhaps most similar to another nation: the United States. “It’s also a big market with a very big domestic market. Only a small percentage of the population had passports before 9/11,” says Graff. In the U.S., cruise ship and bus tours promising ‘Europe in 18 days’ in the 1950s and ’60s were soon followed by the advent of the hippie trail and luxury individual travelers trying to recreate the Grand Tour. Today all three strands sit comfortably alongside each other. China, it seems, is headed in the same direction. 2013年8月22日，当中国游客在参观位于苏格兰南部格雷特纳地的铁匠铺婚宴场地时，他们拍下了观光照片。独立旅游在年轻富裕的中国人中间开始越来越受追捧。 （托比梅尔维尔/路透社） 多年来，中国游客的主流形象是这样的：头戴小红帽的大量游客，跟随有组织的旅行团，从大而嘈杂的汽车里倾泻而出。但是这种刻板形象现在已经过时了。来自Hotels.com网站的中国国际旅游监控的最新一份报告显示， 70％的中国游客现在出国旅游都会选择自主出行。 那么，这种趋势的背后动因是什么呢？一方面，现今的中国游客都偏年轻化：中国旅游研究院透露，年龄在45岁以下的游客占据中国市场份额的90 ％ 。尽管旅行社配送的那些帽子对于老一辈以及越来越多的精明游客来说似乎是一种有吸引力的纪念品，但是它们似乎还是过时了。 “还有就是巨大的文化转变。这一代人在各个方面都强调个性：‘我选择我自己的工作，我选择我自己的男友，那么我为什么不能选择我自己的旅行呢？ ’” Beshan的创始人张美说道。她是中国为数不多的提供高端个性化私人旅游的运营商之一。“媒体也扮演着一个角色：一方面，巴士团被描绘成是愚蠢的——你在车上不会恰巧碰到名人。另一方面，为了试图离开既定的生活和探求更广阔的生活天地，像古岳这样的部落客（从北京到柏林去看望女朋友的背包客）正在探索和追捧更多富有浪漫风情的活法。” 许多能够使旅行团对前几代人产生吸引力的做法已不再适用于聪明的中国新城市居民。他们的父母以及来自中国欠发达地区的游客重视有组织性的旅行团提供的安全保障，尤其是来自农村的不会讲普通话的游客。但是，这些新的独立游客并不是紧张的新手。他们早已周游各地，能舒适的使用外语，并经常在国外学习或工作。 “许多中国游客已经超越了国内旅游行业， ”中国出境旅游研究所主任沃尔夫冈·格奥尔格阿特教授表示。 “大多数运营商只会提供标准旅游的一些服务，只有极少数一些运营商会提供一些更为精致周到的服务或者是能够迎合游客特殊兴趣如观赏野生动物这样的服务。跟团旅行也会经历一些坏的体验，并且会被强迫购物。” 此外，网络资源的增长也鼓动了独立旅行。像携程、易龙和酷讯这样的网站允许用户自主搜索旅游资讯、预订机票和酒店 ，而其他像穷游网和蚂蜂窝这样的网站则会提供免费的实用指南和相关论坛，从而帮助中国人计划自己的冒险之旅。 同时，像赞那度这样的网站会为游客提供走进“梦想居所” 的服务，这些居所常常在电影、时尚杂志和广告牌中出现（想想徜徉在马尔代夫海面上的私人套房） ，但是很少有旅行团能够提供该项服务。赞那度的创始人吴瓒表示， “我们的典型用户并不一定非常富有，他们可能是月薪15000元[ 2460美元]的白领，但他们愿花费250美元在一家酒店愉快的度过一晚。他们对自己的收入感到满意，并且他们的收入在未来还会增长。他们喜欢享受生活。” 对于这些游客来说，豪华的住宿已变得同挑选景点一样同等重要，钱直接从传统的旅行社流向酒店。这些酒店认识到中国人是目前世界上最大的旅游客源，并正在快速地学习如何通过中文网站、雇用讲普通话的员工和细节服务如在客房内提供中式早餐、中国茶和电视等形式来给中国游客提供方便。 然而，更多的中国人能够独立出国旅行的最重要的原因可能仅仅是因为获得签证变得更容易了。在20世纪80年代末，中国只有那些商务和公务旅行的人才被允许到海外旅行，而且每一次参观都需要政府批准。接着，在20世纪90年代，政府出台了唯一的“被批准的旅游目的地国家制度”，该政策为国外团体旅游奠基了道路。此后不久，中国的邻国开始发行个人“休闲签证”和落地签证，但是大多数西方国家都不愿意跟风。 “领事馆拒绝签发个人签证是因为存在可以预知的非法移民的风险。而对于团体签证，如果有人没有回到中国，旅游社可以承担责任， ”《中国之窗》旅游咨询处的总经理罗伊·格拉夫这样解释道。 但是随着富裕的中国游客的崛起，领事馆的态度正在发生变化。 “转折点是在2008年奥运会的前期预备阶段。这些事件把中国的经济推向了全球的舞台， ”格拉夫说，并补充道：“西方国家意识到部分能够负担得起出国旅行的中国人已经成为发达经济的一部分，并且他们也不可能逾期滞留和消失。” 如今，护照上有几个印章的中国公民极有可能获得西方国家的签证，他们都在争夺中国游客。上周，与伦敦市长鲍里斯·约翰逊一起开始中国之行的英国财政大臣乔治·奥斯本宣布会放宽对中国公民的国家签证规则。去年，美国总统奥巴马宣布华盛顿的目标是在中国的签证处理能力要提高40 ％ ，这是一个雄心勃勃的目标，但是在2012年有大约150万中国人前往该国旅游，比去年增长了35.3%,也正好说明这个目标是合理的。 中国旅游业的庞大规模和发展速度也使它显得独一无二。但是，中国并不是第一个因自主旅游而侵犯旅行团的国家。在20世纪80年代，日本大批游客因共同遍游整个欧洲和北美而闻名世界，他们身背昂贵的相机，并跳进跳出游览车。然而，这种旅行模式很快让位给了更独立的旅游形式。 即使如此，这个比喻并不完全贴切： “日本是一个小国，文化和经济水平都更均一，独立旅游在各个阶层和各个地区的增长水平都较一致， ”格拉夫说。 “但是在中国，与其说这是一种文化转变，倒不如说它的阶层分割更明显。更年轻更富经验的旅客，包括高收入人群，选择出国和独立旅行。但是同时，我们看到新一波来自二、三线城市的游客仍会跟团旅行，并且主要是在中国内地出游。” 中国正发展中的旅游市场也许同另一个国家最相似，即美国。 “它也是一个很大的市场，并且也拥有非常大的国内市场。在9/11之前，只有一小部分的人口持有护照， ”格拉夫说。在美国的20世纪50年代和60年代，允许乘游船和观光车在欧洲畅游18日的旅行很盛行，然而试图重新创造伟大之旅的嬉皮路旅行和豪华的个人旅行很快紧随其后。如今，这三种旅行方式并驾齐驱，共同和谐发展。中国似乎也正朝着这一方向前进。 |
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