China Vice Premier summoned twice Chinese tourists to be polite

BEIJING - The passenger in the plane from Bangkok to Macau grumbled to the flight attendant of Air Macau: “could you please tell the group behind to keep quiet and stop shouting as if they were in their own bus”, he said, his voice showing signs of irritation. The “group” behind consisted obviously of ageing Chinese farmers who probably went on their first trip to Thailand and now going back to Guangdong Province via Macau.

In another development, Hong Kong or Taiwan Chinese are easy to complain about the lack of manners showed by their Mainland Chinese counterparts. In Taiwan, following the relaxation of rules for private travellers across the Strait, authorities were submerged with a flux of complaints from locals: Mainland Chinese spit in public, cut in line and talk too loud.

According to Xinhua, mainland Chinese are certainly not the only ones to behave sometimes badly when travelling. However, in contrary to some Western travellers who deliberately damage areas when abroad, Mainland Chinese behaving in an improper way are mostly the result of a lack of education. And this could be adjusted especially after China Vice Premier Wang Yang asked his fellow citizens to be more polite and courteous.

On May 16, Wang Yang advocated during a teleconference held by the State Council (China’s Cabinet) a polite tourist behaviour and stressed that a good image of Chinese tourists should be projected. Mr. Wang was doing this remark during the presentation of China New Tourism Law.

On May 19, the Vice Premier reiterated again his plea: during an inspection tour to central China's Henan Province on Saturday and Sunday, Wang Yang stressed that efforts should be made to advocate "healthy and civilized" manners among tourists.

Wang also urged relevant authorities to develop the tourist industry into a strategic pillar industry of the national economy and a modern service industry. According to news agency Xinhua, Mr. Wang also stressed developing industry associations and self-discipline, as well as heightening market supervision while reducing government interference.

The New Tourism Law, adopted by China's top legislature on April 25, will take effect on Oct. 1. Under the new law, measures are outlined to address problems such as unfair competition, wanton price hikes and forced goods purchases that have plagued the industry and aroused strong public discontent. The new law also lays down provisions to ensure tourists' rights to know, choose, receive assistance and be respected.

While Mr. Wang was looking at the way Chinese domestic travellers are welcomed, better behaviour of Chinese travellers overseas can only raise sympathy for China. By opening the gates to travel 15 years ago to locals, China has succeeded to become the world’s largest outbound market. According to data from the UNWTO, China total number of outbound travellers has been multiplied by more than eight in a decade, growing from 10 million in 2002 to 83 million overseas travellers last year. Chinese generated travel spending abroad of US$ 102 billion!

Tourism is strategically considered by the Chinese authorities as a friendly weapon to conquest the world. By assuring that Chinese travellers have good manners, authorities want to generate empathy or even sympathy from other nations towards China PRC. A useful exercise especially as China’s powerful economy increasingly stretches its influence all over the continents.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews