Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Monday, January 07, 2008
Strangers in their Own Country
Not any more. I noticed this phenomenon first hand when I was in China: The startling number of Chinese tourists. Folks out and about discovering their own country just like I was.
Domestic tourism is indeed booming in China. As economic development swells the ranks of the middle-class, there is increasing demand for new destinations. The number of domestic tourists ballooned from 740 million in 2000 to 1.2 billion last year (emphasis mine), according to figures from the China National Tourism Administration and the China National Tourist Office. Amid the tourism boom, previously untouched areas are attracting traveler attention.
That's almost double in just seven years. Can you imagine 1.2 billion tourists in the US?? The fact that China observes all of its Holidays at the same time nationally creates a tsunami effect during three weeks of the year. EVERYONE goes on Holiday at once. Transportation jams, hotel jams, and most tourist sites are increasingly unable to handle the influx. Unlike the US, where Holidays are observed on certain singular days, the two worst for travel being Thanksgiving and Xmas, the entire country of China shuts down for a week at a time and everyone has a week or more off.
