Jie Li, 25, a backpacker from Guangzhou, China visited Venice, Italy last December. Li is just one of the many Chinese tourists who are now benefiting from loosening travel restrictions in China.

Chapters on where to find a local casino, or a neighbourhood gay bar are noticeably missing, since gambling is illegal in China and homosexuals experience strong discrimination. Despite this overt act of censorship, having accessible copies of the Lonely Planet is a strong indication of a bourgeoning outbound tourism trend in China. Since 1997, the Chinese government has been letting down its great walls to its citizens who desire to travel internationally.   

Countries, including the Philippines, Australia and European Union members are among the 134 countries that China has given Approved Destination Status (ADS) to so far. Having the coveted status means a huge boost to a host country’s tourism industry. For one thing, it allows a host country to actively promote tourism in China. Official designated travel agencies in both host and sending countries work together to coordinate outbound group travel.  

But this was not always the case a little over a decade ago.  Up until then, recreational tourists from China were unheard of. When people wanted to travel outside of China, they could do so only under certain conditions, such as obtaining student or professional visas.  Nowadays, when people in China want to travel to non-approved destinations, they can do so not as official leisure tourists, but with business or students visas or through visas to visit family.  

Wolfgang Arlt, director of the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute, an organization based in Germany conducts research, analysis and consulting services for companies interested in Chinese tourism. Arlt recalls the days when obtaining visas were more difficult. Arlt ran a tourism company out of Germany and says it has only been in the last decade where tourists were recognized as genuine leisure tourists by the government.

“For example, if you were trying to get a business visa to travel somewhere, you would need proof. So you would have to show officials an invitation letter and then go to the consulate yourself,” he says. “Now you can go to a travel agency and it will take care of the visa.”

Backpacking beyond China's border

In just a few short months, Jie Li has backpacked through Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic and Austria just to name a few. Li, 25, says he loves the freedom and money he saves while backpacking.

Backpacking, says Yixian Xiang, a researcher at the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute, has not only become quite fashionable among youth since the late 1990s, but has developed very rapidly.

“At first it was mostly domestic,” she says, “outbound (tourism) is a more recent issue. Some backpackers are seeking freedom and a deeper experience during travelling, while some are attracted to the youth fashion and follow the trend.”

Xiang is conducting her PhD research on Chinese self-organized outbound tourists, whom she defines as travellers who arrange accommodations themselves. Specifically, she is looking at the differences between self-organized tourists and those that opt for group travel.

In addition to more tour books being available, Xiang has noticed an increase in backpack equipment retailers in China.

“Ten years ago, maybe you could find only one or two shops of this kind in a big city like Guangzhou, but nowadays there are more than ten,” she says. “Some are even chain shops.”

Also, a Google search of the word bei bao ke which means backpacker in Chinese, delivers up to 1,340,000 results (when typed in Chinese characters).

So why in the last decade has China pounced on this outbound tourism tiger? The government has realized that a developed tourism industry must have “three legs,” says Arlt, domestic, inbound and outbound.

“To have a fully developed industry, you need all three parts,” he says.

In the past, the government thought tourism would be a means for people to leave the country, seek asylum, apply for refugee status or provide an opportunity for tourists to live as illegal immigrants in a foreign country.

“They see now that (Chinese) tourists will go abroad and come back,” says Arlt. “They see this as a way to tell the world that China is a big and important country. (They also) want to use this as propaganda saying, ‘we’re so rich and important, we can afford to travel.’”

China also has $1.493 trillion US in foreign exchange reserves, according to CIA World Fact Book. This means “the government doesn’t have to care that much if tourists spend money overseas,” says Arlt. “They have hard currency because they are exporting more.”

Though China presents the image that it has let go of its reservations towards outbound tourists, leisure travel is not guaranteed to all of its citizens. 

“(Travel agencies) screen the applicants very hard,” says Larry Yu, a professor of hospitality management at George Washington University. “You can’t just hand in a deck of money and get your visa. They screen you to make sure you’re not intending to escape.”

Red tape travel

Yu says one of the factors they look for includes whether or not you live in or near the larger cities, where life is presumed to be better. The government also looks at whether or not you have a job to go back to, a secure family and, most important, agencies ask for a substantial deposit.

For individual tourists, deposits to the travel agency could be up to $30,000, says Yu.

Outbound travel agencies, which need to be officially designated by the government, also need to pay a security deposit of 1.7 million RMB, or $800,000 paid in cash to the China National Tourism Administration. Though all are technically private companies, designated tour agencies are still closely tied to the Chinese government.

“It’s a means of management and control,” says Yu. “The government puts pressure on Chinese sending agencies…to maintain contact and ensure everything is controlled.”

If any travellers escape to another country while on a designated tour, the tour agency responsible could be blacklisted.

Naturally, travellers are at the upper end of the socio-economic scale. Arlt estimates most travellers are within the top five to 10 per cent of Chinese income earners.  

“China is an hourglass shape society,” says Arlt. “The middle class is rather slim.” Though Yu adds outbound travel among the middle class is slowly increasing.

According to the World Tourism Organization, by 2020, 100 million Chinese will have travelled abroad. This makes the Chinese one of the top sources of outbound tourism.

Canada is one of the last major markets yet to receive approved status by China. Late last year, the United States was added to the list of countries where large Chinese tour groups could travel to. Even though in 2005, it appeared China would finally grant Canada the status, more than two years later, no official word has been given. Arlt says this is because of complications and delays with the United States’ status.

“Canada had been waiting for the United States because they have such a long border,” says Arlt. “China can’t grant ADS for one country and not the other. The risk would be too high for those who could cross the border.”

Canada may also have other political skeletons in its closet which have contributed to the delay. Not only has Stephen Harper openly criticized China’s human rights record, but he also met with the Dalai Lama last October. Last year, Zhang Weidong, a political counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Ottawa condemned Harper’s decision to grant the spiritual leader honourary Canadian citizenship. The Chinese consider the Dalai Lama a separatist.

Though Canada is likely to be approved very soon and officially capitalize on Chinese tourism dollars, the challenge will be to cater to a group with different travel behaviours and preferences.

Arlt recalls a story he heard from an employee of a New York City tour operator. The driver spent six hours bringing a bus load of Chinese visitors to the Grand Canyon. When they arrived, the group took a few pictures and got back into the bus. This is in stark contrast to American tourists who tend to stay there for half a day.

“In this case, Chinese tourists behave differently because Americans can connect to attractions because of a poem, a story, or an image,” says Arlt. “But Chinese tourists don’t have those same connections.”