Top Industry Educator to Conduct Seminar on China's Outbound Tourism

Tony Tse of event co-sponsor Hong Kong Polytechnic University will speak at first-ever U.S.-held Sem

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. October 14, 2008

NEW YORK, NY, March 28, 2007. Tony Tse, Program Director of Industry Partnerships at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel & Tourism Management and an authority on China's rapidly expanding hotel and tourism market, will be one of the featured speakers at the Seminar on China Hotel & Tourism Development, to be held at New York's Le Parker Meridien April 27.

The event is being co-sponsored by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Hotel & Tourism Management and Hotel Online. It marks the first time the special one-day educational program will be held in the United States.

In his presentation, titled "China's Outbound Market-From the Government's Perspective," Tse will discuss hotel and tourism development in China, with a focus on how the macro-environment in China, including policy and politics, affects outbound tourism.

"Outbound tourism from China is shaped by the emerging market economy as well as state policy and politics, so it is important to have a holistic view of the forces shaping the choices of Chinese visitors," says Tse. "My session will deal with how the U.S. government works with the Chinese government to attract Chinese visitors."

According to Tse, in the mid-1980s the government of China introduced the scheme of "Approved Destination Status," a bilateral arrangement between the Chinese government and foreign destination governments whereby Chinese tourists are permitted to undertake group leisure travel to that destination.

"There are about 100 countries with 'Approved Destination Status,' and the United States is not one of them," Tse says. "But despite this, there are about half a million Chinese visitors who travel to the U.S. each year. The California, Nevada, Texas and Florida tourism offices, for example, have participated in travel-trade shows in China to pave the way for Chinese tourists."

WTO forecasts big future for China's outbound tourism

Tse says that currently, the top 10 destinations for China's outbound tourists are Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Russia, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, the United States, Singapore and Malaysia. He says that according to World Tourism Organization forecasts, China will generate 100 million arrivals, which will rank the country fourth in terms of outbound market size by 2020. This will represent more than 6 percent of the global outbound tourism volume.

"Most studies on China's outbound tourism focus on the consumers-who they are, what they want, how they spend, and so forth," Tse says. "My session at the Seminar on China Hotel & Tourism Development will discuss the importance of socio-economic and political forces shaping the outbound international tourist flows from China, and the interplay of market economy and government control.

"For those who target China's outbound visitors, my session will provide an understanding of how these tourists' travel behavior is influenced by the government," he adds.