To attract repeat inbound tourism, country must concentrate on its diversity of traditions

No, I don't know China that well. In 1978, I went with a student delegation to places like Dazhai and Shaoshan. I visited Xi'an, still without the Terracotta Warriors exhibit. In January 1981, I was granted one of the first individual travel visas to visit Chengdu, where it was difficult to get a dandanmian soup without grain coupons. Throughout the 1980s, I organized tourist groups traveling on the tourist highway of Beijing-Xian-Shanghai-Guilin-Guangzhou-Hong Kong, and in the 1990s I guided business delegations going as far afield as Lanzhou and Fuzhou. Beijing was, of course, always on the itinerary, including in 1994 when I was a foreign guest at the celebrations for the 45th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in the Great Hall of the People and on the Tiananmen Square rostrum. In the new millennium, I had the pleasure of teaching at Chinese universities and participating in tourism research projects in places ranging from Yanji to Ningbo and Shangri-La. Altogether I have entered China about 150 times over a more than 35 years. And still, there are at least a dozen provinces that I have never visited and thousands of heritage sights, modern developments and landscapes yet to be discovered.

China has developed into a more important destination for business travelers, students, athletes, expatriates and their families, and others. However, the number of foreign leisure travelers visiting China has been declining in recent years, even though international travel is growing strong and international air transport has become cheaper, safer and more convenient. But as there is so much to see and to experience in China and since China has gained in importance for the world, what could be the reasons for this?

Research clearly shows that over the past 25 years almost everybody who is important and/or rich on this planet has visited China at least once, often combining a business or official visit with some sightseeing in its major cities. The challenge is therefore not to convince foreign travelers to visit China once, but to convince them to go back again and again. The big cities, especially Beijing, are often perceived outside China as polluted and overcrowded. Photos of participants of the recent marathon run in Beijing wearing masks in the heavy smog or of the Great Wall completely overrun by visitors during the National Day Golden Week in October reinforce this negative perception. Tourism marketing for "Beautiful China", as the official slogan describes it, would probably be more successful if it concentrated on the diversity of the offers around the country to attract repeat visitors.

Of course it is not only a question of marketing, but also of product adaptation. Many Western visitors are looking for "authentic" and "traditional" China, not for rebuilt stage sets made of concrete. Staying with Chinese families in their homes on the countryside, living with monks in a monastery, checking out the local art and handicrafts with a village artisan are all products that are successfully offered in other Asian countries, but are hard to find for non-Chinese speakers in China. Some visitors might be interested to see modern architecture like the fascinating Soho buildings of Zaha Hadid in Beijing and Shanghai, but the majority is rather in search of the remaining hutong and other traditional features.

Traveling to China is not difficult anymore as air connections from all over the world and modern international airports are well established. For short visits, 72-hour visas are now available for 11 cities, from Shenyang to Kunming. For longer stays, however, the visa formalities have become more and more complicated. The paperwork has mushroomed from one page to four, the fee has doubled in most countries in recent years, double-entry tourist visa are no longer available and individual tourists have to book hotels and flights before they can apply for a visa. With many countries receiving Chinese visitors simplifying visa requirements or even offering visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, this will hopefully help to reverse the trend and make it easier again to enter China over the coming years.

For backpackers or foreigners traveling on a limited budget, China is inevitably more expensive compared with countries in Southeast Asia. But China offers such a variety of historical, cultural and natural treasures that it should be able to attract more travelers who might spend less money per day than a guest at a five-star hotel but will normally stay longer and spend their money closer to the grassroots of society.

The enormous growth of domestic tourism in China does not necessarily need to have the effect of pushing foreign inbound leisure tourism to the side. Reacting to the differences in demand between local and foreign travelers by creating more specific products and services for foreign visitors to China can give them a worthwhile and pleasant experience of a country to lure them back to visit several more times.

The author is the founder and director of the COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. He is professor for international tourism management at West Coast University of Applied Sciences in Heide, Germany.

(China Daily European Weekly 10/31/2014 page9)