Expansion of the Hospitality Industry – China

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The People’s Republic of China is a very wonderful, vibrant, and an almost mythical place. It is the third largest country in terms of land mass and it is the most populated place in the world. Its total area is 9.6 million square kilometers with a population of 1.2 billion.

It was just recently when China opened up a little to the world with the grand staging of the Beijing Olympics last August 8, 2008. This Summer Olympic presentation was attended by more than 11,000 athletes with 204 countries participating. It is not hard to imagine how tourism has significantly increased in the country with these numbers.

Before the Summer Olympic games, China was already flourishing in the tourism department. By 1996 to 2000, the number of foreign tourists coming to China annually and the growth rate were 6.7443 million in 1996, with a growth rate of 14.6%; 7.428 million in 1997, up 10.1%; 7.1077 million in 1998, a decrease of 4.31%; 8.4323 million in 1999, a growth of 18.6%, and 10.1604 million in 2000, a rise of 20.5%.

The number was already increasing by the year 2000, but during the Summer Olympics, China saw an influx of even more foreign visitors. Inbound spending by visitors for the Beijing Olympics has been almost 4 billion dollars. The event also affected a few countries as regards their tourism. As neighboring countries around China saw a bit of influx in tourism because of the Olympics. People who attended the Olympic games must have decided to go to other places near China as well. The event was certainly a boon to Asian tourism.

Apparently, because of the leeway and the “open policy” that the Chinese government has given tourism in the past few years, 2006 saw about 46 million inbound foreign visitors. Thus making China the fourth most visited country in the world.

The problem with the influx of tourists, both outbound and inbound, is the hotel scarcity, especially the hotel staff shortages. There are just a lot of shortages in talent when it comes to the hospitality industry in China. Even the human resources department in China are gritting their teeth, to roll with the punch of scarce qualified hospitality staff.

The projection is that by 2020, China will be the world’s foremost tourist destination. It is apparent and imminent that China’s hotel industry has to expand even further to house this huge influx of inbound foreign visitors. The deal is that multinational companies are now eyeing China as one of the major countries they are targeting for expansion. Chinese government approves of this foreign involvement, although they will still be heavily regulated as China tends to do.

It looks as though China is on her way to become one of the largest tourist destinations in the world. With the way foreign investment is going, China will surely need to bolster their rooster of qualified hospitality staff. This can be addressed easily by hiring very qualified managers and staff in foreign countries. With the help of these multinational conglomerates, China may be able to address much of the scarcity in hotels, as well as hotel and restaurant staff before 2020.

Please Note: This is the “Part 7” in a series of articles focusing on the “Expansion of the Hospitality Industry”. Over the weeks that follow you can expect to find further parts published in relation to the expansion.

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