Chinese Tourists Touch Down in Germany

Franklin Yu, a concierge at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Shanghai, is happy at last to have arrived in Germany. Despite suffering jet lag from the 16-hour flight, he can hardly wait to start the five-day whirlwind tour of Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg that lies ahead.

Apart from the historic monuments and shopping excursions on the tour, he wants to "understand Europe, find out exactly what it's all about", he says, tucking into a Chinese meal in a central Berlin restaurant.

Mr Yu represents the new frontier in international tourism. A member of the first group of package tourists from Shanghai to visit a European Union country, his trip was made possible by a new agreement between China and Germany allowing ordinary Chinese tourists to visit the land of Bavarian beer halls and Rhineland cruises.

China restricts tightly the list of countries that its citizens can visit as tourists. The country's granting of "approved destination status" to Germany - agreed last year and effective since mid-February - was its first such deal with an EU state. Malta and Turkey are the only countries in the region with similar agreements.

"China is the new motor for growth" in the German tourism business, says Martina Binhack, of the German national tourism board.

"The number of Chinese people who can afford to travel abroad is growing rapidly," adds Robin Zimmermann of TUI, Germany's biggest tourism company. A total of 7.3m Chinese travelled abroad last year, a 34 per cent increase on 2001, he says.

In response to the bilateral agreement, the company is launching Tui China Incoming Europe, a specialist subsidiary, to meet the expected demand.

Mang Chen, managing director of Caissa Touristic, the Hamburg-based travel agency that organised Mr Yu's visit, is also optimistic, in spite of short-term worries about the Iraq war. "One tour has already been cancelled because of fears in China about travelling to Europe," says Mr Chen, whose company has been one of the first to take advantage of the approved destination status agreement with Beijing. And in spite of the worrying spread of the Sars virus from south-east Asia, no tours have so far fallen victim to the international health scare.

The €1,100 (£750) price of the five-day tour means China's "well paid upper classes", such as company managers and entrepreneurs, are the main clientele, he adds.

A surge in Chinese visitors would certainly help the subdued European tourism industry, battered by weak economies and war fears. The number of visitors to Germany fell by 2 per cent last year and prospects for 2003 are flat.

A surge would build on what is already an important market for German hotels and tour operators - 270,000 Chinese visited Germany last year, on business or in official delegations. China is already the nation's third most important source of foreign visitors after the US and Japan. "We expect 600,000 Chinese overnight stays this year and 1m in 2008," says Ms Binhack.

Yet tourism officials admit that persuading China to allow its citizens to visit Germany is only the first step in fuelling this trend. "Germany, and Europe more broadly, must shake up their tourism operations if they want to attract the Chinese," says Thomas Chen, a Caissa executive based in Shanghai.

Chinese tourists travelling to Europe want to visit several countries within a few days, not just Germany, says Mang Chen in Hamburg. "The quicker other countries sign approved destination status agreements, the quicker the visitor numbers will increase."

Finland and Greece are in negotiations with Beijing, officials say.

German tour operators aiming to win Chinese visitors must also adapt, says Mr Chen from Shanghai.

"The Chinese want more shopping and more casino and night-club visits. They want only brief photo-shooting stops at monuments - to show relatives back home the numerous places they've visited," he says, and "more hotel rooms with twin beds, not double beds, are also needed".

In an attempt to make a visit to Germany more attractive, Caissa Touristic is this month expanding its tour portfolio. New elements include trips through Germany's wine-growing regions; and classical music tours.

Yet the offering that Mr Chen hopes will excite the Chinese the most - at least the very rich among them - is perhaps the most typically German of them all.

"From late April we are offering self-drive holidays through southern Germany, where visitors can hire a Mercedes or BMW, open the sun roof and drive for nine days through beautiful countryside," he says.

The convoys of cars, four or five in a group, will be accompanied by tour guides. The price of such a holiday will be at least €2,200, depending on the car they choose. "In China, people can drive at a maximum of 120km per hour. On German motorways, there are no speed limits - that is very attractive to the Chinese," he says.

Yet despite Mr Chen's enthusiasm, other officials argue that it will take more than German cars and open roads to achieve a breakthrough on the Chinese market.

Chinese explorers take the package tour route

Just five years ago the idea of taking holidays abroad was as foreign to most Chinese as the food when they arrived, writes James Kynge. For one thing, there was the issue of money. Flights from China even to nearby countries such as Vietnam cost the equivalent of a few months' average salary. Then there was the visa problem. Many countries fear illegal Chinese immigration and have therefore made the process of winning a visa as tough as possible.

But package tourism has helped to lower such hurdles. Chinese state-run companies such as the China International Travel Service (CITS) are doing a roaring trade by offering heavily discounted tours and hassle-free visa services - in return for assurances that every passenger they handle will return to China. The innovation has opened up new vistas for middle-class Chinese for whom just a few years ago the beaches of Thailand, the jungles of Malaysia and the shopping malls of Singapore seemed destined to remain the stuff of celluloid.

One by one, countries around the world are granting permission for the arrival of Chinese package tours while maintaining strict control over individual visas. Many in Asia have already agreed and India is next. An inaugural CITS tour to India is almost full and will be leaving next month, says a CITS executive.

Europe remains a tough nut to crack. Although Germany has opened its doors to package tourists, other countries such as the UK and France remain sceptical. Russia, says the CITS executive, could be the next European country to grant approval.