According to the US Department of Commerce, a Chinese tourist spends an average of $6,000 USD in the United States. This enormous spending power of the Chinese tourist is the main reason behind the New York City Tourism Bureau to vigorously promote the visit of thousands of Chinese visitors; the largest group in NYC tourism history. According to the Tourism Bureau’s latest news, among the main activities of Chinese tourist, 95% are shopping, followed by dining. Business owners are all smiles upon the arrival of Chinese tourists.

Bloomingdales in NYC, a …

Chinese tourists are seen at the Tokyo Disneyland on Feb 19. [Photo:China Daily]

The Chinese Lunar New Year is not only a gala for domestic retail sales, but a feast for overseas retailers, too.
Some 1,200 Chinese tourists celebrated the lunar New Year in New York between Feb 14 and 20, spending an estimated $6 million in the United States, said Zheng Wenqing, a public relations manager for New York Tourism Board’s China office.
Japanese retailers also reaped gains from Chinese tourists during the week. A local home appliance retailer, Bic Camera, reported …

Just how big (or small) a market would Google leave behind were it to pull out of China today? Last month, China Internet Network Information Center, the country’s official domain registry and research organization, reported that by the end of 2009, the number of internet users in China had touched 384 million — more than the entire population of the United States. That’s an increase of around 50% over 2008. Moreover, 233 million Chinese — twice as many as in the previous year — accessed the Net on handheld devices, …

In what could be seen as a indication of what’s to come at the London Olympics in 2012, Chinese tourists have been spending big at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Visitors from China earned a silver medal in consuming by spending the second-largest amount of any country on the first day of the Winter Games, Visa Canada said Tuesday. Chinese tourists and Olympians used their Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards to the tune of $395,000 US across the province on Feb. 12, the company said
“Chinese tourists the world over are …

China’s online tourism market is booming as an increasingly wealthy middle class travels for pleasure and the use of credit cards and the Internet soars, analysts say.
As millions of people pack their bags for Lunar New Year holidays, the busiest travel period of the year, many will have booked their trips home online, according to Chinese Internet research and consulting firm iResearch.
Revenue from online flight, hotel and package tour bookings will hit 4.75 billion yuan (695.8 million US dollars) in 2010, up 27 percent from last year, iResearch says, with …

www.chinatraveltrends.com, COTRI and Dragon Trail are inviting all visitors
to the ITB in Berlin to a China Outbound Tourism workshop during the ITB 2010 – March 11th at 4.30pm to 5.45pm in Hall 7.1.
As part of the ITB Convention Destination day the China Outbound Tourism Marketing Forum @
ITB Berlin 2010 will look at “Social Media Tourism Marketing – The Example of China”.
The Chinese Outbound market is one of the few source markets which continued to grow even during the global economic crisis. Social Media are increasingly important especially for the younger, …

China added 86 million users in 2009 to reach a total of 384 million Internet users by December 30, up 28.9% from late 2008, according to a report released January 15 by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). China added 120 million mobile Internet users in the year to reach a total of 233 million, representing 60.8% of all Internet users, CNNIC said.

Domestic broadband users reached 346 million by the end of 2009, 76 million more than that of 2008. Rural Internet users accounted for 28.7% of the users, …

SHANGHAI (AdAgeChina.com) — Blogging has become a national obsession in China, with over 50 million Chinese regularly contributing to local blog sites. A handful of these sites are written in English, and provide a fascinating perspective on a country that is changing quickly. Below, we’ve identified 25 blogs that can serve as a great resource for marketers in China.
1. Access Asia (www.accessasia.co.uk), a U.K.-based company providing market intelligence about Greater China, publishes a snarky weekly update reflecting relevant business, economic and political issues.
Recent post: The Great Proletarian Outdoors Revolution! Well …

Canada is a land of diversity and extremes. The country stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and from the USA border to the Arctic Ocean. In the west are the Rocky Mountains and coastal cities of Vancouver and Victoria. Just east of the Rockies are the prairies, home to places like Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg. Further east is the most populated region, the province of Ontario with the national capital city of Ottawa and largest city, Toronto. Beyond Ontario is the French speaking province of Quebec, well …

HONOLULU — Hawaii, California and Las Vegas are among American tourist destinations vying fiercely for a vast and largely untapped new market segment.
Yes, to be a Chinese tourist these days is to be a widely-sought traveler.
Hawaii has beaches and its famed “aloha spirit” as its siren call. Las Vegas offers gambling and its entertainment-oriented attractions. San Francisco can boast high-end shopping and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Beset by one of the worst recessions in decades, the U.S. destinations are spending significant sums on marketing campaigns in China’s most populous regions, and …

Korea’s Chosun Ilbo Profiles These Tourist Groups, Discovering Unique Characteristics That Set Chinese & Japanese Tourists Apart
Chinese tourists made up a significant percentage of the more than 7 million tourists who visited South Korea last year (Korea Times Photo by Park Seo-gang)
One of the major developments in global tourism over the past 5-10 years has been the increasing number of Mainland Chinese who are venturing overseas for the first time. As visa restrictions have eased somewhat in a number of countries, and a more confident and growing middle class has …

Some employers are blocking social networking sites over fears that employees are spending more time socializing online than they are on their jobs.
The revelation came as a new report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) revealed that around one-third of Chinese people regularly met up with online friends in the virtual world.
The CNNIC report said 124 million Internet users in China were using sites including Kaixin001.com and Renren.com. The document said more than half (52.4 percent) of the users were aged between 20 and 29.
Xiao Yu, 28, an …

The Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) yesterday released its latest report (Chinese only) covering the usage of online social networks in the Middle Kingdom. Before highlighting some of the key findings its important to keep in mind several points:

The survey was conducted in July 2009 via telephone and does not recognize recent developments such as e.g. the block of Facebook in China (in the introduction for example, the report talks about Facebook launching a Chinese version and how this stresses the importance of Chinese users …

China* may lower tariffs on luxury goods by 10% — International Finance News
The Ministry of Commerce is drafting a motion to lower China’s tariffs imposed on luxury import goods in an effort to boost sales revenue of the country’s luxury market, the International Finance News reported Thursday.
The draft, which will lower import duties on cosmetics, jewelry and leather goods, is expected to be announced by the end of the year and go into effect early next year, the newspaper said.
The newspaper reached out to the Ministry of Commerce but failed …

BEIJING – Twenty years after the toppling of the Berlin Wall, another “wall” is facing intense public scrutiny in China.
The so-called Great Firewall of China, the online filtering and surveillance program run by the communist government’s Ministry of Public Security, is alive and well and censoring freedom of expression for millions of Chinese.
But over the past few months, Chinese discontent with the Great Firewall has bubbled over with increasing frequency and fervor.
Chinese netizen’s ire was recently sparked by the Green Dam censoring software that was proposed last summer and the …

Source: China Solved (Aug-Nov 2009)
Chinas Fractured Web, Part 1 – Opportunities and Challenge
With the effective blocking of You Tube, Facebook and Twitter, Beijing is succeeding in splitting the Chinese internet away from the global system. A few years ago China’s “Great Firewall” was considered anachronistic and laughably outdated. But instead of crumbling into cyberdust, the digital version of the Great Wall of China has become broader, higher – and more comprehensive.
What are the implications of a fractured internet that excludes not only individual sites but entire communication platforms? It is …

By Jens Thraenhart, Chief Strategist – Dragon Trail (November 2, 2009)

Apple’s iPhone finally arrived at market in China last Friday (October 30, 2009) and is evidently selling fairly well, despite wallet-emptying prices. ChinaNews.com found about 300 people queued up to buy the device at China Unicom’s flagship store in Beijing. That’s far fewer than you’d find at an Apple (AAPL) launch event in the U.S., but  the Chinese version of the iPhone is quite high, with prices ranging from 4,999 yuan ($730) and 6,999 yuan (about $1,025).
In any event, those higher prices …

China Is the World’s Fastest Growing Outbound Travel Market
by Normandy Madden – AdAge China
Published: October 28, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) — Nearly 500,000 mainland Chinese traveled to America last year, said the U.S. Travel Association. Visitors from China tend to come frequently and spend an average of 23 nights in the U.S.
They also spend more than people from any other country, an average of $7,200 each on accommodation, air travel, dining, shopping and gambling.
The U.S. Travel Association invited tourism officials from 30 Chinese provinces and the China National Tourism Administration to …

Approach marketing in China from the inside-out, or risk being left outside the conversation.
With government shutdowns of Western internet services dominating the headlines, companies are reminded of the challenges of doing business in China. But it isn’t only the Chinese government causing problems for Western companies. Based on recent market research of China’s expansive online population, fundamental differences in the profile of Chinese netizens contribute to the difficulties of marketing in that country. Understanding these differences is the first step to a successful strategy.
Next is to reframe the standard tenets …

It happened to Coca-Cola on Sept. 14, to Rio Tinto a month before. Even the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has been hit. The Chinese government has now investigated employees at all three of those companies in high-profile corruption cases. At Coke, a bottling plant employee was accused of taking $1.5 million in bribes. When your company is charged with corruption in China, you have to worry about not only bad publicity but also running afoul of America’s Foreign Corruption Practices Act and a Chinese government that is increasingly clamping down on …