From forging marriage certificates to go on a honeymoon in the Maldives to allowing children to relieve themselves in the middle of an airport in Taiwan, there have recently been numerous cases of rudeness and incivility among Chinese tourists abroad, prompting the Chinese public to start questioning what happens to Chinese people when they venture into the world.
Thanks to internet blogs in China, stories about Chinese tourists behaving inappropriately are spreading across the country, provoking disgust, anger, and a search for causes.
While such reports were previously dismissed as attacks on the reputation of Chinese travelers, people in the world’s second-largest economy are now beginning to wonder why their compatriots behave so poorly abroad.
– Objectively speaking, our tourists are considered uncivilized – said Liu Simin, a researcher at the Center for Tourism Research of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
– Overseas travel is a new luxury. A Chinese person who can afford it compares themselves to others and shows it – Liu added. – Many Chinese tourists simply travel around, and they are often inexperienced and unfamiliar with foreign rules and norms – he explained.
When it was recently reported that a 15-year-old Chinese boy carved his name into a 3,500-year-old temple in Luxor, Egypt, the excitement was such that it was even mentioned in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
– More and more Chinese tourists are traveling to other countries in recent years – said ministry spokesman Hong Lei, adding that Chinese authorities hope this tourism will enhance friendship with other nations and that Chinese tourists will adhere to local rules and behave appropriately.
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang condemned the ‘uncivilized behavior’ of certain Chinese tourists. – They make a terrible racket in public places, carve their names on tourist monuments, ignore red lights at traffic signals, and spit everywhere. This damages our national reputation and has terrible consequences – Wang said.
The Chinese government has therefore published guidelines for tourists on its websites, which include advice on dressing, waiting in lines, and shouting.
More than 83 million Chinese traveled to overseas countries last year, spending a total of 102 billion US dollars, which, according to the World Tourism Organization, is the largest amount spent on tourism.
It is expected that by 2020, around 200 million Chinese will travel the world as tourists. Previously, Americans, Japanese, and Taiwanese were followed by the reputation of bad tourists at a time when those countries became wealthy and their citizens began traveling the world. Criticism eventually subsides, experts claim.
– Traveling is a new experience for tourists – said Wang Wanfei, a tourism professor at Zhejiang University in China. – Tourists learn how to absorb local culture, in a process where they simultaneously rid themselves of their bad tourist behavior – concluded Professor Wanfei.
