Chinese Tourists’ ‘Uncivilized’ Behavior is Finally Improving, Survey Says

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) released the results of a survey showing that major tourism destinations had seen some improvement in Chinese outbound tourists’ manners over the past five years.

The survey, released on Wednesday, conducted interviews with 3,650 people from 10 different foreign tourist destinations — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan — to determine how they felt about the image and behavior of Chinese tourists traveling to their country, according to Shanghaiist.

Nearly half of the people interviewed said that Chinese tourists have improved their manners in the past five years.

Positive response came from countries like Indonesia, France, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.

However, neighboring destinations such as Japan did not have favorable views about Chinese tourists, with only 18.9% of Japanese respondents saying that they had seen an improvement.

According to CNTA, here are the most commonly mentioned bad behaviors:

Making a racket in public
Cutting in line
Showing no respect for local culture and customs
Spitting in public places
Urinating and defecating everywhere
Littering
Speaking impolitely
Taking photos when they are not allowed to
Smoking in public places
Not remaining rational when unsatisfied with services

Respondents were also asked to rate the image of Chinese tourists on a scale from one to ten, with the average score being 5.2.

“Despite there is no difference in how Chinese and overseas interviewees define bad behavior, the overall ranking of Chinese outbound tourists’ manners is not that high,” CNTA said of the results.

In an interview with China Daily, Liu Simin of the Chinese Society for Future Studies, said that “in addition to tightening government or industry regulations on this issue, it is also necessary to educate people about good manners from a young age, even starting from kindergarten, which would set solid foundations for education on civilized tourism.”

In July, YouTube vlogger Disney Dwayne and his friend Adrian visited Disneyland in Shanghai, China, where he noticed “uncivilized” Chinese tourists cutting lines, invading other people’s space, as well as urinating in public.

Even before Shanghai Disneyland’s opening, thousands of tourists trashed the theme park, forcing the government to release a guide for tourists on what not to do including littering, defacing public facilities, harming plants and trees, lying down in the grass, cutting in line and general uncivilized behavior.

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