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Indian tourists on Koh Larn, an island near Pattaya, in Thailand.
Opinion
Destinations known
by Mercedes Hutton
Destinations known
by Mercedes Hutton

Why Indian tourists are nothing like their Chinese counterparts, yet

  • Anticipating a slump in Chinese arrivals amid the trade war and economic slowdown, destinations in Asia are increasingly looking to Indian tourists to make up shortfall
  • But factors from passport strength to spending power indicate travellers from world’s two most populous nations not that similar

Chinese tourists are difficult to ignore, whether in the news or on holiday. But when you consider that travellers from the Middle Kingdom made 140 million outbound trips in 2018, according to state-owned English-language news channel CGTN, the fact that they are in your feed and on the ground is, frankly, not that surprising.

However, pundits perturbed by current trade-war tensions, a diplomatic row with Canada and China’s economic slowdown are predicting that tourism will take a hit in the months ahead, meaning that destinations dependent on their biggest spending visitors could feel the pinch unless they diversify their source markets.

Why Thailand understands the real value of Chinese tourists

Increasingly, Asian holiday hotspots are looking to the region’s other very populous country with a fast growing economy and outbound tourism industry. Airlines have been adding routes between India and Thailand, while Australia saw record arrivals from both China and the subcontinent in 2017, a trend that is expected to continue.

Indian tourists have a long way to go to catch up with their well-travelled Chinese counterparts, though. According to the most up-to-date statistics available from India’s Ministry of Tourism, a mere 24 million outbound trips were made by its 1.3 billion inhabitants in 2017. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation estimates that figure will reach 50 million by 2020, driven by a growing and increasingly affluent middle class, but that is only where China was in 2009, when almost 48 million of its citizens made journeys beyond its borders.

Back then, American tourists were still considered the worst in the world, denounced for their rudeness, vulgarity and general obnoxiousness. It was not until 2013, when 15-year-old Ding Jinhao from Nanjing etched his name into Egypt’s ancient Luxor Temple, bringing shame upon his nation and alerting the international media to the “virality” of stories about misbehaving Chinese, that travellers from China took the undesirable crown. That year, overseas visits swelled to 98 million, according to the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, and the reports of improper antics have multiplied as the number of outbound trips has increased.

In May 2013, a Chinese visitor etched “Ding Jinhao visited here” onto the 3,500-year-old Luxor temple, in Egypt. Picture: AP

A number of factors are holding Indian travellers back from becoming the next dominant wave.

India currently has a “passport power rank” of 69, placing it alongside Sierra Leone and Sao Tome Principe in the Global Passport Index. Indian citizens can travel visa-free to 25 nations, qualify for visa on arrival in 39 and need to apply for a visa to enter 134. Chinese fare slightly better, at number 60 in the list, with visa-free access to 28 countries, visas available on arrival in 46 and a visa required for 124.

Then there is the matter of money. In January 2018, The Economist suggested that India had a hole where its middle class should be. According to the magazine’s research, only 78 million citizens could be considered middle class, and although that figure has been contested - most convincingly by Indian financial newspaper Mint, which placed 158 million Indians in the middle class - it is significantly lower than China’s 400 million middle-class residents, according to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics.

For the time being, destinations from Phuket to Perth will vie to attract visitors from both China and India – or Chindia, as Indian politician Jairam Ramesh calls the neighbouring nations that together account for more than one-third of the world’s population – while the title of “world’s worst tourists” remains uncontested, at least as far as the media is concerned.

Land of the rising bum

Squat toilets are becoming rarer in Japan as the country prepares to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
There has been much talk of Japan’s sayonara tax, adding 1,000 yen (US$9) to tourists departing the country, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. That is not the only thing that will be changing in the Land of the Rising Sun – the Tokyo municipal government is giving the capital’s loos an upgrade, too.

Website Nippon.com, which translates Japanese news stories, reported that squat toilets were being replaced with Western-style ones at an accelerating pace. Tokyo Metro plans to install sit-down lavatories in all 179 of its stations, while Toei Subway, the capital’s other subway operator, is aiming to increase its proportion of Western-style toilets from 60 per cent to 90 per cent before the Olympics.

Bamboo Airlines takes to the sky

After several delays, Bamboo Airways prepares for take-off in Vietnam.
Hot on the heels of Vietnam’s newest airport, the country’s newest airline, Bamboo Airways, prepares to make its maiden flight on January 16, taking off from the capital, Hanoi, and heading to the coastal city of Quy Nhon, in Binh Dinh province, where the airline’s parent company, FLC Group, runs a hotel.

Operating 37 domestic routes at its launch, and with plans to expand internationally within the region (Destinations Known is hoping Bamboo snags a route to Chengdu, home of the panda, just for the headline value), the low-cost carrier will be competing in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. One-way tickets from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City start from 399,000 dong (US$17).

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