From Sunday, January 8, the Chinese will be able to travel to Europe again. France constitutes their first destination on the continent. An increasingly diverse clientele.
by Jessica Gourdon
It was a ballet to which Jean-Pierre Jaubert, lavender producer on the Valensole plateau (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), had used. Every day, between June and July, “up to twenty buses” of Chinese tourists stopped in front of its purple plantations. First act: photo shoot in the middle of fragrant bushes. Second act: a tour in his shop, which sells essential oils, honey, creams or sachets flavored with lavender.
For three summers, the ballet has stopped. “We have a few Europeans, but it has never exceeded two to three buses a day,” comments this cultivator, who counts in his team a Chinese, Yi Shi, formerly responsible for welcoming this audience. “In China, these lavender fields have become famous thanks to a very popular series, Dream Links [released in 2008],” she explains. Needless to say, Jean-Pierre Jaubert is waiting for the return of these travelers.
From January 8, Chinese tourists, deprived of travel for three years, will be able to obtain a tourist visa again and will no longer be subject to around forty when they return. In France, this air call arouses strong hopes: in 2019, 2.2 million Chinese had visited France. An average of five -day trips, with fallout estimated at 3.5 billion euros per year per Atout France, or 7 % of tourist revenues.
“crowded, dirty and dangerous capital”
This return will be progressive – if only for visa issues, or obtaining a passport, whose delivery was suspended. “The tour operators will not return before the end of 2023 or 2024”, predicts Vanguélis Panayotis, from the firm specializing in the MKG hotel.
But everything suggests that France, which was so far the first destination of Chinese tourists in Europe, will continue to attract. “France, for the Chinese, is absolute otherness, it is exotic, observes Elisa Cousseran, teacher at Inalco, who has organized trips in France for the Chinese public. Associated with its heritage, romanticism, a certain art of living, in short, a glamorous image. Many see France through a very Hollywood filter. “
In the top 3 frequented sites are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe. One of the characteristics of this clientele is that it spends a lot: 191 euros per day, per person, on average (against 138 euros for other international tourists). The department stores, the perfume channels take advantage of it. Normally, at the Galeries Lafayette and in the spring of Boulevard Haussmann, in Paris, nearly 50 % of the activity comes from foreigners.
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