research on how to improve "tourist image"

[hkkevin]

Hi, I'm making a small research about the policies to promote the image of tourists in different countries.

In China, people are more eager than ever to discuss the image of "Chinese tourists". The problem has arised, followed by the relaxation of travel visa in China. Government is getting worried that the misbehavior of many Chinese tourists will eventually damage the image of China--- in fact, a sign written in simplified chinese like "no spitting", "flush the toliet" become more common in Thai, Japan and many hot destinations for Chinese tourists. Chinese government just annonunces that there'll be a 3-year plan to educate chinese how to be a good tourists.

These policies seem quite odd, but it's not really new. I've heard that Japan government launched a similar plan decades ago, although I don't know the details of it.

It's really hard to search these info on the internet. I don't know what's the key words for it. Please share your thoughts. Any information will be appreciated. Thanks!

[imron]

Government is getting worried that the misbehavior of many Chinese tourists will eventually damage the image of China-

Eventually? It's already happening. From what I can tell, Chinese tourists have a pretty bad rep. everywhere. Unfortunately it's not enough just to educate a person about how to be a good tourist. People are creatures of habit, and it's difficult to just get them to behave a certain way just when they are tourists. Educate someone about why they should always flush the toilet/always wait in line without pushing, and you won't have a problem when these people become tourists because they'll behave in a civilised manner out of habit. I know China has a big population, and education of the masses can present a problem, but if the government can do it for meaningless things like the "3 represents", and the "8 harmonies", why not do the same for the "N civilised behaviours". At least it'd actually have an impact on something.

[aeon]

Imron is right: it's already happened. My (Malaysian Chinese) in-laws are rather disparaging about mainlander's morals and manners, and there have been articles in Singaporean newspapers about the bad behaviour of Chinese tourists. Even here in the UK, I remember something in a newspaper about a near-riot in a factory outlet store which involved a Chinese tour group. The tone of the piece was more baffled amusement than anything, but the seeds are sown... Frankly, the prospect of mass tourism from China is currently rather depressing. Anything you can do to prevent the beauty spots of the world from disappearing beneath a tidal wave of spitting, pushing, chain smoking, littering, jay-walking, queue jumping, public urinating and shouting has to be all to the good. It was frustrating enough seeing it happening in China, where at least we could console ourselves with the fact that they were destroying their own heritage...

On a personal note, when we were living in Beijing I actively dissuaded my parents from visiting, as the low standards of public manners would have given them a poor impression of Chinese culture which could have reflected badly on my in-laws.

[hkkevin]

yeah, you guys are right, but i just don't know how much the image of China has been damaged. But my post doesn't intend to discuss the bad behavior of Chinese tourists, we know it too much and most of us have really bad experience with it. But how to improve their behavior?

[atitarev]

In Australia there was a brief TV report about booming tourism from China. So that Australia should be ready for the influx in a positive sense. They mentioned that Chinese tourists have somewhat bad reputation and this issue was discussed with Chinese tourists on a tourist bus. Their opinion was that situation is changing because Chinese tourists are not as poor as before and they have seen the world and other cultures.

Russian tourists had this reputation problem too - there were always signs in large cyrillic letters on trans, hotels, etc., I think it's getting better now.

[imron]

Unfortunatley, this behaviour isn't limited to poor people, and in fact some of the worst behaviour comes from the wealthier tourists, especially the nouveaux-riche who seem to feel that because they have money, they can do whatever they like.

As for solving the problem, it's really a matter of education, and not just a "how to be a good tourist" style education, but rather education at the society level, so that people develop good habits that they follow all the time (which automatically solves the problem for when they are tourists). One of the keys to solving these problems is to figure out who to educate. Take waiting in line for example. It's time-consuming and ineffective to try and educate the masses that waiting patiently in line is a good thing to do. This approach also falls apart when even a small amount of people try to beat the system, because then mob-mentality sets in and everyone else starts to follow suit.

It's far more effective to educate the service personnel that they shouldn't serve anyone who doesn't wait in line, and force anyone pushing-in to go to the back of the queue (refusing to serve anyone until this happens is a good way to make even the most stubborn of people go to the back, because everyone else waiting then starts to help you enforce this). If this was rigorously enforced, then the system becomes self-educating, because the masses soon realise that pushing and shoving doesn't get them anywhere, and so they have no other choice. You also have a much smaller number of people to try and educate, and they're easier to target because education can take place in the workplace, ensuring that the relevant people get the training and they need.

One of the other problems regarding solving these sorts of problems, is that a culture exists in China, where people "shouldn't interfere" with other people's business, and so when person A sees person B doing something they shouldn't (i.e. smoking directly under a no-smoking sign), rather than asking the person to put out their cigarette, they're more than likely to stay quiet, because they don't want to receive abuse from person B for not minding their own business. This is something that really needs to change, because it's impossible to always have staff enforcing all the various regulations that exist, and so you need to have the back-up of the ordinary people willing to take someone to task for uncivilised behaviour.

[wushijiao]

I think if there is one good thing about having a state-run media, it's that it might be easier to do "public education" campaigns. For example, this exact topic is on the front page of Southern Weekend/ 南方周末. Also, I'd imagine that many of the readers of this paper are in the demographic that is likely to go abroad.

http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/zm/20060928/xw/tb/200609280002.asp

[hkkevin]

One of the other problems regarding solving these sorts of problems, is that a culture exists in China, where people "shouldn't interfere" with other people's business, and so when person A sees person B doing something they shouldn't (i.e. smoking directly under a no-smoking sign), rather than asking the person to put out their cigarette, they're more than likely to stay quiet, because they don't want to receive abuse from person B for not minding their own business. This is something that really needs to change, because it's impossible to always have staff enforcing all the various regulations that exist, and so you need to have the back-up of the ordinary people willing to take someone to task for uncivilised behaviour.

oh, it would be terrible. Inteferring every single minor misbehavior will make daily conficts become our everyday life if Chines people, at this moment, do this. It's actually a means of making good conducts of social behaviour more sustainable, more than a way to make it from scratch.

[aeon]

I think imron is right about teaching people how to queue. One of the few places in China where I saw a mob turn into (reasonably) orderly queues was at Beijing Zoo, where they had stationed a 'bouncer' at the head of each queue who sent away those who pushed in. However, queueing in some countries is even more subtle than standing crammed in a line, nose to the back of the person who is obviously in front. In small shops in particular, people will often just take mental note of those who were there before them, and ensure that they are served in the correct order by giving way if the shop assistant gets the order wrong. I suspect that that kind of behaviour would be difficult to teach.

[imron]

oh, it would be terrible. Inteferring every single minor misbehavior will make daily conficts become our everyday life if Chines people, at this moment, do this.

Well, you wanted to know solutions, and peer-pressure is an effective solution. If there's no enforcement, or lax enforcement, then people will just continue on doing things as they see fit. I don't mean that people need to go about busy-bodying and policing everyone else for every single little thing, but for cases where someone is obviously in the wrong, that person really doesn't have any right to get angry/upset. The other thing is, this would really only be a problem during a transition period. Once people start behaving in a civilised manner, then no-one will need to tell them off/interfere with their business, and everyone is happy.

I've been in many situations in China where I've politely asked someone in Chinese to stop smoking (either on a bus/other non-smoking area), or to pick up litter that they've dropped. I think the offending person is usually so shocked (and ashamed) to be told this in Chinese by a foreigner that they don't get angry. However later on, the Chinese friends I've been with have commented that there's no way that the person would have reacted the same way if they had been the ones who had asked the person to stop doing what they were doing. And while they also would have liked to have told the person to pick up their rubbish/stop smoking, they didn't out of fear of being verbally abused.

And this is a big problem - that people doing something wrong feel they have the right to do whatever it is they feel like, and that the real people at fault are the ones asking them to stop.

If you want things to change, then it's up to everyone to make sure that others don't get away with such behaviour. You can't just hope to appeal to everyone's good nature and sense of greater good, because there are enough people out there that don't care about such things and so to rely on such behaviour dooms any such attempts at reform to failure.

[hkkevin]

peer pressure is important, but what i mean is that "peers" of good social conducts are not big enough to make pressure.

[roddy]

What I find most disappointing about the Chinese governments efforts in this regard is that so much of it is concerned not with just generally improving the quality of people's lives, but with making changes for the sake of appearances - to 迎奥运, etc. Wait till 2008 when the last tourists and athletes have left - the entire population of Beijing will roll up its collective vest, hawk up a nice fat lob of phlegm and push to the front of whatever queue is nearest

Realistically though, I reckon this is the kind of stuff that needs to be built in from childhood, and that is happening - broadly speaking I'd say that the younger and more educated in China do act more civilized, and as time goes on there are going to be more and more of them . .

[wushijiao]

I have to agree with the gist of imron's comments on this. Peer pressure is the best way to get people to change their behavior.

I think Shanghai has done a good job at improving some of these behaviors. The crossing guards at the major intersections do make a difference. I also notice mush less spitting, hardcore pushing...etc, and I wonder to what degree that is due to the propaganda campiagns in the city, as compared to other areas. This important, I think, because I would guess that due to the raised awarness about bad behavior in Shanghai, Shnaghaiese would be less likely to do many of these things abroad. That's not to mention that except for the years 1949-1979, Shanghai has had exposure to foreign "customs" for about 150 years.

Similarly, while in the US last year and in Europe three years ago, I noticed many groups of Chinese people traveling in a way that was as respectful as any other nationality. In the US (in the montains of Colorado) these Chinese had all rented cars. In Italy and other places, they were mainly seeing musuems. How does a group of Chinese tourists going to Italy to educate themselves about Western art compare to, say, the hordes of tourists on big group tours going down to Thailand to see exotic sex shows, 看一点儿热闹?

Without getting into details, I'd suggest that there are strong socio-economic, regional, and educational factors at play regarding the behavior of some people.