Are Chinese travellers minding their manners?

BANGKOK There are signs that Chinese travellers maybe mending their manners according to latest China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) survey.

The CNTA survey, released last week, interviewed 3,650 people in 10 major tourist destinations popular with Chinese tourists.

It concluded that Chinese overseas travellers were bettered mannered than five years ago, but there was still plenty room for improvement.

The survey questioned residents in 10 tourist destinations popular with Chinese tourists — US, UK, France, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Nearly half of the people interviewed said they believed Chinese tourists had improved their manners in the past five years.

Respondents were positive in Indonesia, France, Singapore, the UK and the US.

In contrast, Japanese residents were not convinced Chinese tourists had improved their manners. Only 18.9% said they had seen some improvement.

CNTA, as part of its ongoing campaign to improve the behaviour of Chinese travellers when overseas, identified the 10 traits and habits that have to go.

They included:

Yelling in public;

Jumping the queue;

Lack of respect for local culture and customs;

Spitting;

Urinating and defecating in public;

Littering;

Speaking impolitely;

Taking photos when they are prohibited;

Smoking in public places;

Losing control when unsatisfied with services.

Survey respondents asked to rate the image of Chinese tourists on a scale from one to 10, gave them an average score of 5.2.

“Despite there was no difference in how Chinese and overseas interviewees defined what constitutes bad behaviour, the overall ranking of Chinese outbound tourists’ manners was not that high,” CNTA concluded.

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