A longer term boost came when France was granted “Approved Destination Status” together with 25 other European countries (not including the UK nor Ireland) in mid 2004, allowing Chinese nationals to travel as tourists. The impact on the Franco-Chinese tourist industry was immediate. According to Chinese state media, some 20.2 million Chinese travelled abroad in 2003, up 21% on 2002. The French Tourist Board counted about 300,000 Chinese visitors in 2003.
In 2004, that number had jumped to 450,000. While this is still microscopic compared to China’s population, it does make an impact to Paris, which gets about 8 million visitors a year.
The majority of Chinese tourists visit 4-5 European countries in just 2 weeks. Paris tops the list as favourite destination, followed by Rome, Switzerland and Germany.
Throughout, shopping seems a high priority. There are now 2 queues in front of the Louis Vuitton flagship store: one of Japanese and one of Chinese. While Chinese tourists spend less per day on average, than the Japanese, they spent more than American or German tourists in 2004. French department stores, luxury good boutiques and hotels have jumped onto the rickshaw: Galeries Lafayette employs some 40 Chinese-speaking assistants to cater for the groups while hotel chains Mercure and Novotel (part of the Accor chain) around Paris increasingly have Chinese satellite TV.
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