After a month in Holland it’s good to be back in the dirty heat of Shanghai.
Being a [tag]China News[/tag] addict I wasn’t let down. [tag]Dutch Media[/tag] love items about [tag]China[/tag], from little funny tidbits about how the film MI 3 may not be released in China because there is too much laundry hanging in the street to video items about the average time a [tag]Chinese[/tag] tourist spends in [tag]Holland[/tag] while on a [tag]Europe[/tag] tour.
With a bit of luck they stay 1.5 day but for most tours Holland is a short break on the way from [tag]Belgium[/tag] to [tag]Germany[/tag] (or vice versa). On average the time in Holland is probably less than 12 hours.
[tag]Dutch Hotels[/tag] are more expensive than Belgian and German ones. [tag]Chinese tourists[/tag] spend a maximum of 30 Euro to sleep so it makes sense to do it this way as long as Dutch hotels like to stay expensive.
The Dutch tourism board did some self-fulfilling research and concluded that in the future (I guess far future) the Chinese tourists will choose more for quality. With quality they probably imply paying too much for hotel rooms.
One other reason they stay a short time is the fact that Chinese will enter Europe in Germany or France. Visa procedures are more convenient there.
A friend working in the [tag]China tourism[/tag] industry once told me that Chinese tourists spend almost 300 Euro a day while on tour abroad, buying all kind of souvenirs and other brand products.
In 2005 107.000 Chinese visited Holland. A bit less than the expected and the numbers have been adjusted for the coming years. Before the estimation for 2007 was 350.000, now they hope to get 175.000 in 2010.
It would be smart to keep them a bit longer inside the borders and have them spend. Maybe it helps when the [tag]Dutch government[/tag] gets rid of the idea that all Chinese want to stay in Holland forever and improve/simplify the visa process.
Sources: Geledraak (Dutch) , Volkskrant (Dutch)
If your marriage is falling apart, try to think back and ask yourself. “Did we have turtles on the menu during the wedding dinner?”. And why didn’t we, was it because I was too stingy?
STOP, you hear me, STOP [tag]JAYWALKING[/tag], STOP IGNORING THE RED LIGHT.