Why the world’s biggest globetrotters are getting a bad rap!
If you’ve been living under a rock lately, you may be forgiven for failing to notice there’s a new breed of jet-setter in town.
This unfamiliar travelling species hails from China – the not so unfamiliar territory that can lay claim to host of the world’s largest population (so large in fact, I’m struggling to read the ten digit figure in front of me). Let’s just keep it simple and say this giant of the East is home to “well over” a billion people and counting.
Given that little fact, you won’t be surprised to hear, the Chinese in all their colossal glory have seized the crown as the biggest travellers on the planet!
What is quite remarkable though – is – at this point in time only five per cent of the mammoth population actually holds a passport!
Suffice to say, nearly one in ten travellers today, are Chinese.
And that, right there, is posing quite a problem for much of the rest of the world.
As China’s inhabitants explore the globe at a frantic pace (Chanel handbags slung over their inquisitive shoulders), they’re just as quickly cementing their reputation as being rude, loud and extremely uncouth!
Media outlets increasingly bear headlines protesting the brash, crass and recalcitrant Chinese tourist for vocally and often vulgarly making their mark on the planet!
Several decades ago, the Americans were haunted by similar taunts. Called the “Ugly Americans,” as their passports garnered more stamps, their reputation for being obnoxious and offensive was firmly imprinted on the map.
But now it seems the Chinese have unwittingly highjacked the title from their US competitors.
Just last month the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand was up in arms after being inundated by scores of Chinese visitors displaying behavior that locals have labelled disturbing and rude.
Countless tourists took over Chiang Mai University, sneaking into classes and causing chaos in a bid to follow in the footsteps of the 2012 movie “Lost in Thailand” which was filmed on the campus and the highest grossing movie ever released in China.
The tourists were blamed for spitting, littering and flouting traffic laws in the normally peaceful Thai city.
But, what the Chinese visitors lack in sophistication, they certainly make up for in dollars.
In 2013, Chinese tourists spent $129-billion; and with the number of Chinese tourists set to DOUBLE by 2020, make no mistake everybody’s scrambling for a piece of the action.
China is currently Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable inbound market