Food and Chinese Outbound Tourism

Two years ago, eight Chinese outbound tourists spent more than US$ 4,000 at Abu Ghosh, a famous restaurant in Jerusalem. The chief executive of the Israeli Incoming Tour Operators Association started a public debate by publishing a copy of the bill in an Israeli financial newspaper, accusing the owner of the restaurant of cheating his customers and creating a bad image of Israel as a destination. Global media and the Israeli Embassy in China got involved. Mainland Chinese official media however ignored the “incident” and discussions in Chinese social media, based on international media coverage, mostly agreed that, for the Chinese, there is nothing unusual about spending $500 per head on a lavish dinner.

Food is an important part of the Chinese culture, and knowledge about international cuisines has become another element of “social capital” sophisticated Chinese have to acquire next to the big car, expensive apartment, branded clothing and accessoires and international travel experience. Nine out of ten outbound travellers wish to try “local specialities”, but Chinese travellers with a high individual income and most young tourists prefer not only to taste, but actually to learn about and eat local food[…]

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Image: Food by Tomer Gabel Source: Flickr Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)