说明:双击或选中下面任意单词,将显示该词的音标、读音、翻译等;选中中文或多个词,将显示翻译。
Home->News->travel->
All tourists are welcome, Cambridge insists
2018-12-21 
The Fitzwilliam Museum (top) and the Magdalene Bridge (above) in Cambridge are popular destinations for Chinese tourists. China moved into the UK's 10 most-valuable inbound visitor markets last year for the first time, with visits reaching a record-breaking 270,000. [Photo provided to China Daily]

But UK university city hopes to attract visitors in smaller groups.

Tour operators in the university city of Cambridge in the United Kingdom have stressed that all Chinese visitors are welcome, despite local media reports stating that limits have been imposed on the size of tour groups.

Emma Thornton, CEO of tour company Visit Cambridge and Beyond, said the city wants to encourage tourists of all nationalities to visit in smaller groups, or to travel to it independently, to improve their experience.

Cambridge, with its world-renowned university, is a magnet for Chinese visitors, many of them middle-class parents wanting to check out the school on behalf of their children.

"We have a very compact city center with a medieval streetscape, so when you've got groups of 50 or more, they don't see a lot," Thornton said.

"Most of the colleges will only allow groups of no more than 20, so a big part of our objective is about making sure people have a really fantastic experience when they come here. If we could encourage tour operators to ensure visitors explore the city in smaller groups, their experience would be so much better," she added.

King's College is a particularly popular destination for tourists from China, as the poem On Leaving Cambridge by Xu Zhimo, a former student at the university, is displayed in the college grounds.

Visit Cambridge and Beyond hopes to establish better communications with tour organizations to enhance visitors' experience of the city.

"On a typical July Saturday, more than 100 coaches that can each seat 50 people arrive, and probably 90 percent of those don't engage with us at all as a business or as an organization," Thornton said

The Round Church, King's College Chapel and punting on the River Cam in Cambridge are popular attractions for visitors to the city. [Photo provided to China Daily, Joe Giddens/PA VIA AP]

"It's about working more closely with them and developing a relationship - a relationship which, sadly, we don't currently have."

Visit Cambridge and Beyond said it has been working with a new organization, the Cambridge China Centre, which was established six months ago specifically to help British and Chinese businesses collaborate more closely across all sectors.

John Milne, guided tours manager at Visit Cambridge and Beyond, said: "We're looking at arranging a conference for group travel operators in the spring of next year. We want to encourage them to come along to talk to us, to work with us, to see how we might, together, improve the quality of the experience that visitors have, and certainly that's very focused on the Chinese market but equally with other international markets."

According to VisitBritain, the United Kingdom's official tourism body, China moved into the UK's 10 most-valuable inbound visitor markets last year for the first time, with visits reaching a record-breaking 270,000, a rise of 46 percent on 2014. Spending rose by 18 percent, to 586 million pounds ($759 million).

The Round Church, King's College Chapel and punting on the River Cam in Cambridge are popular attractions for visitors to the city. [Photo provided to China Daily, Joe Giddens/PA VIA AP]

Tourism officials are encouraging visitors to stay in Cambridge for more than a day, and are pointing out that there is plenty to see beyond the university and more to do than merely punting on the River Cam.

"It's also a city that's famous for science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurialism. It's a city for festivals," Milne said.

Beiwei 55 Degrees Travel, a tour company in London, said it limits groups to 15 people or fewer, to enable travelers to have "a more intimate and personable experience".

Andrew Speke, operations manager and tour guide at Beiwei 55, said Cambridge could look at offering incentives to encourage international visitors to plan their visits to the city outside the peak season. It could also consider ways to expand the tourist experience, perhaps into the nearby countryside.

Some Cambridge residents have welcomed plans to reduce the number of visitors in tour groups.

Simon Goorney, a student in the city, said large groups of tourists can make traveling around Cambridge tricky at times. "The main issue is when you're cycling and you encounter large groups of tourists. It's very difficult," he said.

Zhang Qiankun, 25, an engineering student, said, "I think the problem of blocking roads occurs when tourists start taking photos. They don't usually care what's happening around them."

Zhang said that when he cycles in the city center he sometimes needs to "twist around in order to avoid travelers", and at times almost collides with them.

A 26-year-old PhD student, who only gave her name as Sarah, said tourist numbers are especially a problem during the summer holidays.

"Roads in Cambridge were not built for such a big population, so even without tourists, traffic has become a huge issue in the city," she said.

Last year, John Hipkin, a Cambridge city councilor, told The Guardian newspaper: "Tourism is a great part of modern life. But if it gets out of hand, it can threaten the character of tourist destinations."

According to James Kennell, principal lecturer in tourism at the University of Greenwich in London: "Small, historic towns and cities struggle to accommodate increasing numbers of large groups, along with meeting the needs of individual travelers. The growth of accommodation options such as Airbnb means that destination managers are finding it ever-harder to know how many tourists are visiting."

Experts said rising numbers of Chinese tourists to the UK are undoubtedly having an impact on the sector's growth, but they are still a small proportion of the total. They believe that as Chinese tourists have begun to venture further from London, in groups or as independent travelers, they are having a much bigger impact on smaller towns and cities.

Kennell believes Chinese tourism is a huge opportunity for the UK, but it needs to be planned and managed sustainably.

"If Chinese visitors go to cities such as Cambridge and find them overcrowded and not like they imagined, they won't come back," he said.

A report by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, the country's largest online travel retailer, said outbound Chinese tourist numbers last year reached 130 million, and are expected to hit 220 million by 2025. This is due to rising disposable income, fewer visa restrictions, better exchange rates and increased flight connections.

Chinese tourists' changing tastes might offer some reassurance to cities coping with bus-filled tour groups, as many of these travelers are now planning trips themselves.

Travel experts said this is a sign that some areas of the outbound Chinese market are slowly maturing.

The Round Church, King's College Chapel and punting on the River Cam in Cambridge are popular attractions for visitors to the city. [Photo provided to China Daily, Joe Giddens/PA VIA AP]

According to the booking.com website, of the 130 million Chinese tourists who traveled overseas last year, 55 to 66 percent of them went independently, and such visitors are looking for "authentic, local experiences that incorporate regional culture, cuisine and activities".

Renee Hartmann, co-founder of China Luxury Advisors, told the global travel industry news website Skift, "Hopping on a tour bus and letting a guide handle all the details is still the norm, as outbound travel remains a novelty for many Chinese travelers.

"They are more likely to go with a group the first time they travel abroad, but on future trips, when they're perhaps more comfortable, that's when we see growth in independent travel," she said.

Hartmann added that Chinese travelers who take independent trips are often in their 20s and 30s, but other age groups are also beginning to make their own travel plans.

While tour groups tend to appeal more to older travelers, many younger Chinese are signing up for them the first time they go abroad.

To date, Cambridge has not reached the stage where residents take to the streets in protest over tourist numbers, as has happened in the Spanish city of Barcelona and Venice, Italy.

Antitourism sentiment in Barcelona reached boiling point, with reports stating that some visitors had eggs thrown at them. Demonstrators held up placards reading, "This isn't tourism, it's an invasion."

Residents were unhappy with tourists renting homes, which protesters said meant rents had become unaffordable for locals.

The backlash against the tourism industry in both Barcelona and Venice prompted officials to crack down on illegal holiday rentals.

According to The Guardian, about 9 million people stayed in hotels in Barcelona last year, and a further 9 million in holiday apartments. The city also received some 12 million day-trippers, who arrived by car, train, or cruise ship. The 30 million visitors who arrived throughout the year swamped the 1.6 million residents.

Venice, which caters to between 70,000 and 90,000 visitors a day, is devising a plan to try to get tourists to stay longer by getting them to visit attractions other than the main ones in the city center.

In Croatia, the impact of tourist numbers in the walled city of Dubrovnik has prompted officials to cap the number of cruise ships that dock each day to two, carrying a maximum of 5,000 passengers between them, according to The Independent newspaper website. The measures will be introduced next year.

In 2016, Dubrovnik welcomed 3.4 million tourists who stayed at least one night, a rise of 13 percent on the previous year. The city's popularity rose after it was used as a location for the TV series Game of Thrones.

China's burgeoning middle class is expected to contribute to a rise in cruise ship tourism.

According to the Cruise Lines International Association, by 2025, the number of Chinese travelers who will have taken cruise trips is expected to grow by between 8 and 10 million.

Alexandra Boulton contributed to this story.

Most Popular...
Previous:Avaya: Continuous steady growth expected in China
Next:Nation's 1st private rocket factory begins operation