Pacific competes for China’s tourists

Officials in the Marianas region are in hot pursuit of the latest holy grail of Asia: the Chinese tourist. Within a few years, their numbers are projected to match the number of Japanese tourists visiting the region, according to a report in The New York Times

Reports have it that Beijing would allow Chinese group tourism to Saipan, which got China Southern Airlines’ twice-weekly charter flights from Shanghai, starting last month.

Guam Gov. Felix Camacho was quoted in the report as being “glum,” over this development but he assured that his government is moving to catch up.

“We have seen them moving very aggressively,” Camacho told The New York Times. Referring to Beijing’s plan to give “approved destination status” to Saipan this summer, he added, “We are moving as quickly and aggressively to get it for ourselves, too.”

The report said that all across the Pacific, even in Japan, officials are vying to net the wealthy Chinese tourist, seen as the big-spending successor to the Arab tourists of the 1970’s, fueled by oil dollars, and the brandaholic Japanese shoppers of the 80’s and 90’s.

In fact, China and Japan traded places as tourism powers last year, according to statistics from the two countries. About 15 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas, a 47 percent jump from the previous year compared with 13.2 million Japanese, a 19.5 percent decline.

“The numbers are overwhelming,” the paper quoted Pacific Island Club-Guam general manager Bartley A. Jackson as saying. “If just 1 percent of the population can afford to come to Guam or Saipan, that is a tremendous market to draw from.”

The Chinese now dominate or account for a large slice of foreign tourism in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

They are also starting to flow into more expensive destinations like Japan and Hawaii.

The New York Times report credits the forecasts of growth in Chinese tourism on China’s booming economy and two crucial moves by the government last fall to placate the growing middle class: instead of just a restricted pool of residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Guanzhou, residents of about 100 second-tier cities also were allowed to travel abroad. The government also increased the amount of foreign exchange a person may take out of the country, to $6,000 from $2,000.

Hong Kong is bracing for the arrival this year of 11.5 million Chinese tourists, part of a forecast increase in overall tourism to Hong Kong by a third, to 20.5 million. To cope, Hong Kong officials have debated converting cruise ships and public housing into temporary hotels.

In 2003, Saipan and the rest of the Northern Mariana Islands received 15,213 Chinese visitors.