Peruvian food and KFC

The new eBook Chinese Outbound Tourism 2017-2019 Week by Week – The 100 Best Editorials of COTRI WEEKLY brings together the 100 best editorials of the years 2017-2019. Today, let’s have a look at the editorial of 12 June 2019 reporting about a topic very popular with tourists: food.

In the May update of CTT China Tourism Training it is mentioned that within a recent “Thinking of you” campaign on Weibo for 18 international destinations, among the campaigns, three most popular posts information on Peruvian cuisine could be found. In the COTRI WEEKLY editorial of 19 June 2018, the scandal about eight Chinese outbound tourists spending more than US$ 4,000 in 2016 at Abu Ghosh, a famous restaurant in Jerusalem, was reported. Whereas the Israeli Incoming Tour Operators Association accused the restaurant of overcharging, in Chinese social media most netizens agreed that for affluent Chinese there is nothing unusual about spending $500 per head on a lavish dinner.

There is a noticeable change from the times when nouveau riche Chinese would simply order the most expensive bottle of wine in a restaurant, or when I personally witnessed four Chinese emptying a bottle of expensive Single Malt Whisky by mixing the delicious stuff in tall glasses with Coca Cola and ganbeiing it in two gulps within five minutes, just so that the host could show off to his colleagues that he did give a sh*t about the cost. They had obviously never read the description by Dante Alighieri of the part of hell reserved for gluttons.

Now, Peruvian cuisine and craft beer are taking over and on Mafengwo you find discussions about the question where in Milano you get the best Tiramisu. Nine out of ten Chinese outbound travellers wish to try “local specialities”, but not on a daily basis. However, among the younger generation of independent travellers many are foodies, travelling to eat. They see by now exploring local cuisine as a huge part of exploring a new place and as another element of “social capital” sophisticated Chinese have to acquire.

In between the international star-rated cuisine and local yummy dishes sits the “Chinese” fast food. Luckin, the chain competing with Starbucks in China recently grabbed the headlines when they were found falsifying their books. Still, there are more than 5,000 KFC, 2,800 McDonalds, 2,300 Starbucks and almost 2,000 Pizza Hut branches covering all first and second-tier and a number of third-tier cities. Western fast food has become a part of the daily fare in China even for those who never travelled abroad.

PS.: If you want to know more, read the “100 Editorials of CHINA WEEKLY“ eBook this series is based upon, or have a look into my chapter about Chinese outbound tourism and food in the book “Food, Wine and China: A Tourism Perspective”, edited by Christof Pforr and Ian Phau, Routledge 2018.

The eBook Chinese Outbound Tourism 2017-2019 Week by Week – The 100 Best Editorials of COTRI
WEEKLY (ISBN 978-3-944757-11-7) is available at https://china-outbound.com/ebooks/

Next Friday’s topic: Sunshine