UK Only Article:
standard article
Issue:
Hunting the rich
Fly Title:
Catering to Chinese tourists
Rubric:
A billion pairs of itchy feet
Main image:
Buried pleasure
Buried pleasure
THEY are in Paris, buying Chanel shoes. They are in London, scouting Mayfair property. They are in Rome, ordering dim sum instead of pasta. Chinese tourists seem to be everywhere, yet the Chinese tourist boom is only just beginning.
The country's $232 billion travel market is mainly domestic and hugely under-developed. A few short decades ago, Chinese citizens could not go anywhere without permission. Now members of the new middle class are eager to explore the far corners of their great nation.
Many firms are jostling to help them. On September 15th Baidu, China's largest search engine, announced plans to list the shares of Qunar, a popular Chinese travel search aggregator, in which it purchased a controlling stake in June. In May Tencent, another online giant, snapped up 16% of eLong, a Chinese online travel ...
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