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Taiwan shopping to lure mainland
tourists
TAIPEI - After
Taiwan opens up to tourists from China, Taiwan
tourism promoters should focus on catering to
Chinese tourists' shopping habits in trying to
attract more tourists from the mainland, a
researcher from the Taiwan Institute of Economic
Research (TIER) has suggested. Sun Ming-teh made
the remarks in his report on the consumption
pattern of Chinese tourists, following the promise
made by Premier Frank Hsieh in late July to start
negotiations with Beijing on opening Taiwan up to
tourists from the mainland.
Citing a
survey conducted by the marketing information
company AC Nielsen and the Tax Free World
Association on 1,500 Chinese tourists from
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou who visited Asian
or European countries in the last six months, Sun
said the consumption patterns of Chinese tourists
are quite different from those of tourists from
other countries. According to the survey, Chinese
tourists rank second in the world in terms of
amount of spending during a single foreign visit,
trailing only Japanese tourists. However, in
spending on shopping, Chinese tourists top the
list at an average of US$987 per person.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by Taiwan's
Tourism Bureau in 2004 showed that 47.5% of
spending by foreign tourists in Taiwan was on
hotel accommodations, followed by spending on
shopping at 21.3%. However, among Chinese
tourists, including those from Hong Kong and
Macau, spending on hotel accommodations stood at
only 40.6%, while spending on shopping accounted
for a whopping 27.2% of total spending per visit.
Analyzing the results, Sun said that
European and American tourists generally focus on
"leisure and culture" on their vacations,
demanding hotels with good facilities such as
swimming pools and showing more interest in
cultural performances and unique local handicrafts
and art work. Chinese tourists, on the other hand,
are not as concerned about the quality of hotel
accommodations and are more eager to visit popular
tourist spots to take photos, and tend to focus on
shopping for items such as brand-name clothes,
cosmetics, jewelry and electric home appliances,
Sun pointed out.
Most of the Chinese
tourists are people from wealthy coastal areas,
government officials, or employees of state
enterprises, who generally tend to have higher
incomes or enjoy government subsidies for air
tickets, hotel accommodations and food, Sun
continued. Noting that although Taiwan's shopping
environment is not superior to that of Hong Kong
or Macau, and although there is still no direct
transport between the two sides of the Taiwan
Strait, Sun said the spending of Chinese tourists
in Taiwan is still high. He suggested that
domestic tourist agents focus on shopping to cater
to the special tastes of Chinese tourists in order
to attract greater numbers of visitors from that
potentially lucrative market.
(Asia
Pulse/CNA) |
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