A Chinese Solution to Kerala's Tourism Sector Woes
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A Chinese Solution to Kerala’s Tourism Sector Woes Muraleedharan Nair Senior Fellow, CPPR Working Paper No. 001/2019 February 2019 Published in 2019 by the Centre for Public Policy Research, Kochi Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) First Floor, “Anitha”, Sahodaran Ayappan Road Elamkulam, Kochi, Kerala , India-682020 www.cppr.in | E-mail: [email protected] Distributed by the Centre for Public Policy Research, Kochi All rights reserved. This publication, or any part thereof shall not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the author. Author Muraleedharan Nair Disclaimer: The author, who has served in various diplomatic missions in China, is a Senior Fellow with the Centre for Public Policy Research, Kochi. The opinions expressed in the report are his personal views. He has made presentations to academic audiences and written articles on similar subjects in the past, and therefore, it is natural that a few parts of the article are identical to what he has said/written earlier. A CHINESE SOLUTION TO KERALA’S TOURISM SECTOR WOES A Chinese Solution to Kerala’s Tourism Sector Woes European cities or Asian tourist destinations, lands.Therefore, they are keen to apply for North America or Australia or even Africa, new passports. wherever one goes these days, one gets to see This report will stick to the 2016 figures swarms of Chinese tourists milling around. It for the following analysis, as some of the is their sheer number – a mammoth figure – 2017 figures related to India are confusing. If rather than anything else that makes them so more than 12.2 crore Chinese visited foreign inescapably conspicuous. However, though one countries in 2016 as mentioned above, only would get to see Chinese tourists in droves even about 2.5 lakh of them chose India as their in the neighbouring Sri Lanka and Maldives, destination. Among them, only a meagre 6,000 the number of Chinese tourists visiting India is opted to visit Kerala. At the same time, the abysmally low. total number of foreign tourists who visited Since the later part of 2014, China has Kerala in the year (i.e., from all over the replaced developed nations that boasted of world) was about 10 lakh. That is, the total populations with decent levels of disposable number of foreign tourists who visited Kerala incomes as home to the largest number of in 2016 is equivalent to less than one percent outbound tourists. According to studies by the of the total number of Chinese who undertook China Tourism Academy (CTA), a government foreign tours in the same year. If Kerala had sponsored organisation,11.7 crore Chinese beenable to attract just one out of every 100 tourists visited various global destinations Chinese who went on foreign tours during in 2015. In 2016, the figure rose to over 12.2 2016, the state’s intake of foreign tourists crore, who spent over US$ 110 billion, an would have simply doubled. In other words, if average of US$ 900 in each trip. These figures Kerala succeeds in luring a ‘mere one percent’ rose to about 12.9 crore travellers, marking a of Chinese tourists visiting foreign countries, 5.7 percent growth over 2016, and US$ 115.3 the difficulties the state faces in terms of poor billion in 2017. Increasing disposable incomes, footfall of foreign tourists can be resolved in fewer visa restrictions, better exchange rates the short and medium term. This, in turn, can and improved flight connections are among the give a much-needed impetus to the state’s reasons for the ongoing surge. economy that is reeling under the impact of the recent devastating floods. Above all, China To put things in perspective, it is is a market the Kerala tourism industry has not apposite to note that the number of outbound been able to exploit so far. tourists from India in 2016 was 2.187 crore (in comparison to China’s 12.2 crore), which India, Not yet on the Chinese Tourists’ is less than 18 percent of that of China in Radar the same period. Interestingly, only about 10 percent of the Chinese hold passports now. Are issues like the unresolved border dispute Reports indicate that as the economic status and unpleasant incidents that keep cropping of the average urban and semi-urban Chinese up in the Indo–China bilateral relations that continues to grow and the size of the Chinese prompt the Chinese tourists to keep away middle class keeps swelling up, there is an from India? The answer is that it is not the key increasing interest among them to visit foreign reason for this apathy. Because, even as China 1 A CHINESE SOLUTION TO KERALA’S TOURISM SECTOR WOES continues to have serious disputes, including outbound tourists were Shanghai, Beijing, maritime boundary issues with countries like Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, Nanjing, Wuhan, Tianjin, Xi’an, Changsha, the Chinese traveller has not avoided these Chongqing, Xiamen, Kunming, Wuxi, Harbin, destinations from his/her itinerary. If these Shenyang, Hefei, Fuzhou and Zhengzhou. nations could attract hoards of Chinese tourists However, the scenario is changing rapidly. An despite similar or even graver bilateral issues, interesting development noted is the reported India can also do so (the border dispute, emergence of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan intermittent incursions and face-offs between Province, overtaking Guangzhou and Shenzhen our armies, and the episodic media diatribe on in terms of outbound tourists. The fastest either side notwithstanding). developing/growing centres of outbound tourism were smaller Tier-II, Tier-III cities like Despite being a neighbouring country, Zhuhai, Nanning, Kunming and Hefei during the there is a lack of general awareness among year. In terms of growth in outbound departures the Chinese about India as an attractive tourist from hitherto smaller centres, the top 10 cities destination. India is still considered a ‘dirty’ were Xi’an, Changsha, Wuxi, Taiyuan, Wuhan, country by a cross section of the Chinese Hefei, Chengdu, Nanjing, Harbin and Kunming, population. Unfortunately, this misconception in that order. Incidentally, a good percentage continues despite an ongoing effort on the part of the important cities from the perspective of various Indian government entities to create of tourism promotion falls under the consular awareness among the Chinese about India jurisdiction of India’s Consulates General in as a safe, attractive and affordable tourist Guangzhou and Shanghai, and therefore, any destination. Further, the outsourcing of the visa efforts to woo the Chinese tourists must be application process, simplification of related focused in these areas. paperwork and introduction of electronic visa authorisation system, among other steps, have Focus on Group Tours made obtaining an Indian Tourist Visa a lot easier for the Chinese than in the case of the About half of today’s Chinese travellers are in citizens of many other countries. However, the the age group of 35 to 45 years. Some reports, fact remains that the Chinese in general have however, indicate that people younger than 35 not shown much enthusiasm in visiting India. years of age, and people above 45 years of age have also started showing increased interest Who is a Chinese Traveller? in travelling abroad. Another important point to be noted here is that more than 55 percent The obvious question now is what more needs of Chinese travellers are women. Equally to be done to attract the Chinese traveller important is the fact that more than 40 percent in addition to the earlier-cited efforts by the of the Chinese travellers strongly prefer to join Indian side. It is important to know more about group tours. That the Chinese prefer group the average Chinese traveller, his/her budget tours is evident from the fact that they number and engagements in a foreign land. well over a whopping 5 crore, and that the In 2016, most of the outbound Chinese total number of India’s outbound tourists might tourists departed from metropolises like hit that level only by 2020! Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The reason for a large chunk of the In 2017, the top 20 cities that witnessed the Chinese travellers preferring group tours is departure of maximum number of Chinese 2 A CHINESE SOLUTION TO KERALA’S TOURISM SECTOR WOES simple – the security one feels in the company quest is whether s/he would get good food of one’s own people while travelling in faraway of his/her liking there. It might appear a bit alien lands. This is particularly so in the strange but the traveller from the country that case of the average ‘language-handicapped manufactures anything and everything one Chinese traveller’ who speaks only Mandarin requires in daily life is a keen shopper abroad. or anynative dialect. While the average Indian Naturally, opportunities for shopping quality traveller would try to manage things with a international brands are another important smattering of the English language anywhere factor he, rather she, takes into account while in the world, the average Chinese leans heavily finalising the travel destination abroad. on interpreters. Then, the Chinese strongly believe that they would not be taken for a ride Chinese Love Asian Destinations in foreign lands if they opted for time-trusted, In 2017, a maximum number of Chinese successfully run group tour circuits. Indian outbound tourists chose Thailand (98 lakh), tour operators must keep these factors in mind followed by Japan (over 70 lakh), Singapore, while trying to penetrate this market with its Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, own unique characteristics. the US, South Korea and the Maldives, in that order. The fact that Chinese package tourists What do the Chinese Look for Abroad? are ahead of any other ethnic or linguistic According to a recent CTA report, “...outbound groups that visit every possible European tourism has [now] become a demand [sic] destination during the tourist season, is not for Chinese consumers.