Chinese Group Travelers on the Go

I’m talking about the large packs of Chinese tourists wearing matching baseball caps and shuffling behind a young tour guide juggling a flag in one hand and a megaphone in the other.

Wherever there’s a site worth visiting in China, you’ll find them – from the Bund all the way to the top of a sacred mountain – caps on, in a group. And wherever you find a group of Chinese tourists, you’ll find foreigners wondering why locals all agree to wear those matching caps.

Well, I don’t have a good answer for the caps, but I can explain the Chinese travel culture – and chiefly, the tendency to travel en masse.

First and foremost, the travel industry is still young in China. In fact, the travel industry didn’t really get its start here until 1927 with the establishment of the China Travel Service Agency – an expansion from a travel department within the Shanghai Merchants Back. And up until 1980, China only had three travel agencies nationwide. (China Travel Service, China International Travel Service Limited, and China CYTS Tours Holding Company)
 
Even then, the majority of these agencies’ business was in operating tour groups for outside visitors – not locals. The profit from overseas travelers was much higher than from domestic travelers and it helped build up the foreign currency savings for the country. So travel agencies weren’t focused on selling to the domestic market.

Additionally, travel infrastructure was limited, so group travel with routes and accommodations carefully planned was more convenient if not sometimes even necessary.  Similarly, five-star hotels were being developed much faster than budget options. Few could afford the luxury of travel.

As if price and availability of options weren’t enough of a hurdle, planning travel as an individual was a big task. To arrange transportation, locals had to either obtain several approvals for buying airline tickets or stand in line day and night to buy train tickets. They might spend half their vacation time on a crowded train or bus. And once at their destination, it would be hard to know what the local accommodation might look like, so they’d often carry their own sheets and dinnerware in their luggage. So much for traveling light.

Group travel emerged as a way to share the burden. Groups could take turns standing in line for train tickets. Or share leads on lodging with a friend or family member. And students loved traveling in groups during school vacation.

As China’s travel infrastructure expands, travel has become much easier. New roads and railways are improving access to destinations. Airline capacity has been doubling every five years. Car ownership is growing at a rate of 30 percent every year. Hotel options are multiplying quickly. And estimates now place the number
of travel agencies in China at 20,000.

Even so, travel – especially independent travel– is still a relatively new concept to the Chinese. On average, a Chinese person will only travel slightly more than one time per year. And most people are still going in groups arranged by the travel agencies.

So the presence of matching caps populating every significant tourist spot in China comes back to two simple reasons: a lack of travel experience and the desire to get the most bang for their RMB. The domestic travel customer puts heaviest emphasis on visiting as many places as possible during their one and only trip per year on as little money as possible. And travel agencies add value on both counts. Besides working out all the time-consuming transportation and accommodation details, the travel agencies can use their buying power to get better deals.

Nevertheless, courage among the domestic travel market has been building. Travel agencies are seeing more locals planning their own itineraries and using agencies’ help only for arranging round trip transportation and local accommodation. More travel guides and travel books are being published. And people are sharing their travel stories on the Internet.

An ancient Chinese intellect once said that one needs to “read ten thousands books and travel ten thousand miles.” The Chinese today are getting closer to making that saying a reality – matching caps or not.