In China’s Hubei province, tourism workers are being taught how to smile
- Local officials have distributed a handbook telling employees in the tourism industry to ‘smile genuinely and naturally, with your teeth showing’
- How to answer questions and give directions are also included in the manual
If, over the course of 2020, you have forgotten how to crack one, take heed of the “Specification of smiling service in tourist scenic spots” guidelines published by China’s Hubei province.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the “Service with a Smile manual, which reads somewhat like a dry legal document” was put together “to lure back visitors after the coronavirus outbreak”. The handbook, which can be viewed online, has been distributed among Hubei’s tourism industry workers and outlines “standards for facial expressions and how workers should communicate with visitors”, reports digital magazine Sixth Tone. Smiling should be undertaken “genuinely and naturally, with your teeth showing”.
Still, there’s no time like the present to work on some self-improvement, especially when the Lunar New Year break is approaching and with it the opportunity to appeal to a captive domestic market and make up for the lost business of 2020. So, in addition to instructing employees how to smile – “the face should be natural and relaxed, with the corners of the mouth slightly upward”, according to ABC – the manual offers advice on how to behave in various tourism-related scenarios.
Sixth Tone’s translation reads “[Employees] should look kind, sincere and energetic while attentively answering questions, without staring too long”. Exactly how long is too long is not made explicit, unlike the advice on how to help tourists find what they are looking for.
“When giving directions to visitors, fingers should be naturally together, palm side up 45 degrees,” writes ABC, citing the handbook, which continues: “When directing the approaching target, the arm is at an angle to the body of 120 degrees-150 degrees; arms should keep straight when directing distant targets, eyes should focus on the visitor and the target, while using smiles in conversations.” Easy.
Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna prefecture, in the southwestern province of Yunnan, is also hoping to attract tourists. To do so, all government employees have been asked to wear “ethnic costumes at least two workdays a week”, Sixth Tone reported in August. The Dai people are the major minority in Xishuangbanna, but many others – including the Hani, Yi, Lahu, Blang and Jino – can be found in the autonomous prefecture.
Speaking to ABC, Sam Huang, a research professor in tourism and services marketing at Edith Cowan University, in Australia, said that such directives were common in the Chinese hospitality sector. “If you live in a Western cultural environment, [the decrees] may be quite new. But this is not new in China.”
But do China’s hospitality workers need encouragement to smile? Mainland tourists don’t look as though they will be able to travel beyond the country’s borders any time soon, which could give destinations across the vast nation plenty to grin about over the current and upcoming festive periods. If only the same could be said for the rest of us. Perhaps we will just have to fake it till we make it and bide our time practising our best happy expressions.
Altogether now, “smile genuinely and naturally, with your teeth showing”. That’s better!
Carbon emissions for 2020 drop because people travelled less
Environmentalists should be smiling, too, because the (rather slim) silver lining to the near-collapse of the tourism industry and the loss of livelihoods for millions around the world has been a significant reduction in carbon emissions. According to the Global Carbon Project, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell by 7 per cent in 2020, the biggest drop ever recorded. (Unfortunately, other evidence suggests much or even all of that saving was offset by a weaker land sink, so the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations in 2020 has been about the same as that in 2019.)
“Researchers say the emissions are down mainly because more people stayed home and travelled less by car or plane this year,” reports German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “Transport accounted for the largest share of the global decrease in emission of carbon dioxide, the chief man-made greenhouse gas.”
Data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that international tourism dropped to 1990 levels as a result of the pandemic, with Asia-Pacific seeing the greatest decline in arrivals. Commenting on the figures, UNWTO secretary general Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Even as the news of a vaccine boosts traveller confidence, there is still a long road to recovery.”
Which, of course, is quite the understatement!
The Londoner Macao set to open in February
The opening of the property, the transformation of which is reported to have cost US$2 billion, was postponed from September because visitor numbers to Macau had plummeted due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
According to promo material, The Londoner will reference the UK capital in a “fun and playful style, typified by statues of seven quintessentially British figures, or Greeters, at the hotel’s lift lobbies”. One of those statues is of a punk (Sid Vicious and Joe Strummer must be spinning in their graves), which reminds us of a lyric in the song London Calling, by Strummer and The Clash: “London calling to the imitation zone/Forget it, brother, you can go it alone.”
Quite.
