Europe is failing Asian tourists, says report

Joe Bates

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A new study from Euromonitor reveals severe shortcomings in how European destinations cater to Asian passengers

Europe is badly prepared to meet the growing influx of Asian tourists, a major research report has revealed.

The Euromonitor WTM Global Trends Report 2006 uncovered serious shortfalls in infrastructure and service provision across the continent, which if left unresolved, will impact future revenue from high spending Chinese and Indian travellers, who already spend on average $2,300 per trip. The number of Asians travelling to Europe has increased 25% year on year since 2000, reaching 14m in 2005, according to the European Travel Commission.

Problems highlighted in the report include a lack of coach parking facilities in many European cities and too few credit card and cash machines

outside cities and main tourist areas. Chinese tourists, who typically undertake a 10-day coach tour of Europe, are restricted in how much cash

they can take abroad, often relying on preloaded payment cards while on holiday.

With many Chinese tourists preferring to curb spending on accommodation to focus on shopping, the report discovered a shortage of low to mid-priced

accommodation in many countries, especially the UK. There is also a lack of Chinese-speaking tour guides and few tourist websites are translated into

Chinese.

France is the most popular European country for Chinese travellers, attracting 472,000 visitors in 2005, followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland. France has been very proactive in attracting Chinese tourists, hosting a Year of France in China promotion last year, which involved over 100 events across the country promoting France.

Euromonitor predicts that the number of Chinese outbound tourists will have grown by 190% to 110m by 2010, generating $94bn worldwide.