Beijing Considers New Methods to Boost Sagging International Tourist Numbers

With overseas tourist arrivals continuing to plummet, Beijing is once again considering ways to attract more international tourists to Beijing.

In January of 2013, Beijing adopted a 72-hour visa-free policy for inbound tourists in the hopes of boosting visitor numbers, but international press about Beijing's bad air, combined with nasty traffic and increasingly high prices has resulted in continuing declines in overseas arrivals.

The policy has been open to 51 countries and regions including the US, Canada, and many European countries for nearly two years, but to date fewer than 40,000 tourists have availed themselves of the service, which amounts to about 60 travelers per day.

That's less than one percent of all overseas visitors, and even those using it may have been already planning trips to China. So the policy has basically failed to stimulate anything.

China Daily reports that proposals under discussion include extending the limit for transit passengers to 96 hours (four days), and opening up visa-free entry to all foreign visitors. Also under consideration is actually promoting the plan overseas (very little of this has been done so far) and offering tax refunds on departure for all purchases made domestically.

Some officials say one snag is that the policy requires travelers to be in transit in other words, they have to have onward tickets already purchased. There are only 22 destinations with direct flights to China, and a three-day jaunt in Beijing just ain't on many international travelers' itineraries. Additionally, the policy is complicated and restrictive enough to make it impractical for most.

We have a better idea to stimulate toruism: Clean up the f***ing air. Beijing is a laughingstock worldwide for its air pollution, and its reputation for horrendous traffic ain't much better, and for many people that's a deal-breaker.

Just Wednesday the China Tourism Academy released a survey indicating that 80 percent of travelers avoid tourism destinations prone to smog, and more than 90 percent say smog ruins the sights and their mood. The report even came up with the ungodly stat stating that for each one percent drop in good air days, the number of inbound tourists fell by about 443,550 people.

But we'll be realistic; cleaning up the air ain't happening any time soon. So here's our list of additional suggestions to promote Beijing as a tourist destination:

1. Extend the visa-free policy to a week or hell, three weeks for that matter. No "tourist" is going to come to China for 72 hours; for most traveling from afar a trip to China is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and if you're traveling from anywhere but Asia, you're barely over jet lag in 72 hours. Make it a week, or even three weeks, and this will stimulate more visits.

2. Promote Beijing as an international destination, not just a Chinese destination. Beijing's great for the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven and such, but it's now a major international metropolis that isn't just about Chinese traditional culture. Let a hundred flowers bloom by promoting Beijing not just for its domestic traditional culture, but its thriving modern and international culture as well. Tourism should highlight more than the ancient sites of Beijing with a few of the moribund and underused Olympic venues thrown in for good measure.

3. Unblock popular international social media tools. Yeah, we said it. Travel, like everything else in this world, has gone digital and mobile. Travelers around the world depend on services like Google Maps to get around, and are 100 times more likely to share their photos and experiences with their friends on Facebook than via a postcard or an old-fashioned photo album back home. You want traveling to China to go viral? Give travelers access to the tools to share.

4. Improve English signage and supplementary materials at major tourism spots. The museums and travel destinations of Beijing are an abomination for people who don't speak Mandarin. Unless you are lucky enough to find an engaged, enlightened tour guide, visiting the Forbidden City and the National Museum is nothing short of fabulously disappointing. Detailed signage on exhibits and well-written exhibit brochures will do wonders to assist self-guided tourists.

5. Create a tourist-friendly transportation card that gives travelers unlimited trips on public transportation for one price, paid in advance. Make it simple for tourists to get around on their own, without having to figure out the fare system. While we're on the subject, bilingualize the bus system, which unlike the subway, is virtually impossible to use without the ability to read a phenomenally large number of Chinese characters.

6. Reduce the bureaucracy for foreign performers to make Beijing a cultural hub. Promoters complain about the bureaucracy that's involved in getting top-name acts to come to China for performances. Simplify the process so that major international concerts and festivals can take place more frequently in Beijing. People from neighboring countries or even fans from afar will follow to enjoy the shows.

7. Crack down on infamous tourist scams. While the pervasive human trait of graft will never be completely eradicated, and we must give credit to Beijing as an all-in-all extremely safe city. However, it may help for certain tea ladies/men touting student art/taxi drivers to be dealt with in a manner that assures tourists that ongoing scams are waning.

8. And if all else fails: Embrace Smog. Offer free masks to all incoming tourists at the airport. Sell gray "I Survived Beijing" t-shirts at all tourist destinations. Promote Beijing as the Airpocalypse City and challenge adventure travelers to compete in all manner of extreme sports in the Worst Atmosphere on Earth. Offer "Smog Tours" of smoke-belching factories.

Image: The Beijinger

Comments

New comments are displayed first.

I don't have trouble reading the Chinese on bus signs. Usually someone comes up and wants to help but by that time I've found three buses I can take.

ohdjango wrote:

Quote:

bilingualize the bus system

They might actually be doing this already. I'm fairly sure I took a bus or two this week on which announcements were made in English.

 

that's definitely a step in the right direction but even better would be to add pinyin to the signage, which they are not doing as this is a picture of the "new" signage that began going up this week, from this morning's newspaper (you can see in black writing on the white strip at bottom the new pricing details that kick in Dec 28).

I read Chinese fairly well and still have trouble reading this signs like this. Having said that, I can't imagine how they'd possibly cram pinyin into these signs, they are already super crowded.

 

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

Quote:

bilingualize the bus system

They might actually be doing this already. I'm fairly sure I took a bus or two this week on which announcements were made in English.

Yes, it may be in your daughter's textbook, and many others, as a relatively innocuous phrase. Many here may still consider it innocuous due to its origins in classical literature, as well as the way its more recent history and the full effects of the campaign by that name are downplayed. But for any who lived through that campaign and suffered from it, as well as those who grew up outside the local propoganda machine, it was deliberate deception perpetrated with murderous intent. That's why your comment comes across as inappropriately flippant: for the same reason you wouldn't jestingly use the phrase arbeit macht frei in an article about killer make-up work weekends for holidays.

I'm quite aware of the historical association with Mao's campaign, which is referred to as the Hundred Flowers Campaign (百花运动 baihua yundong) in which he borrowed the poetic phrase "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom" (百花齐放 baihua qifang) from a book that dates back to the Qing Dynasty by writer Li Ruzhen (1763-1830) and extended it to "Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend" (百花齐放,百家争鸣 baihua qifang, baijia zhengming).

百花齐放 is a Chinese phrase so common and non-controversial as to be included in my daughter's Second Grade Chinese textbook.

 

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

goodstff wrote:

"Let a hundred Flowers Bloom" isn't the best reference in an article promoting new ideas to attract tourist as it is a reference to the Hundred Flowers Campaign to which Mao invited various intellectuals to come forward from far and wide to promote various ideas of thought and ambition.

He killed them all.

That was EXACTLY my thought when I read the reference. Wasn't sure if the author was writing tongue-in-cheek or truly wasn't aware of the historical associations with that phrase.

Doubt wisely; in strange way / To stand inquiring right is not to stray; / To sleep, or run wrong, is. (Donne, Satire III)

Meanwhile in some bizarre alternative universe, some misguided PR company is trying to spin Beijing tourism thusly:

Beijing's Popularity as a Tourism Destination Grows after Historic Macy's Parade Appearance

NEW YORK, Dec. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The beauty of China's capital, Beijing, with its rich history, culture and rising cosmopolitan appeal, is coming to one of the most popular entertaining television channels this holiday.

On the heels of the "Beauty of Beijing" float, which appeared for the first time at the 88th Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on November 27th,  'Visit Beijing' will again be in the American spotlight this holiday, this time on Dec.20th at 7:30 p.m. on WABC television New York. Additionally, a massive Beijing tourism promotion will be rolled out throughout the WABC website as well as on New York City taxies during the Christmas season.

More here

Meanwhile, the blog of the official Beijing Tourism website features such Beijing-centric gems as The Most Unromantic Poems, Audrey Hepburn Beauty Tips and How to Drink Alcohol without Getting Fat

Books by current and former Beijinger staffers

http://astore.amazon.com/truerunmedia-20

"Let a hundred Flowers Bloom" isn't the best reference in an article promoting new ideas to attract tourist as it is a reference to the Hundred Flowers Campaign to which Mao invited various intellectuals to come forward from far and wide to promote various ideas of thought and ambition.

He killed them all.