Tourists from China have gained a notorious reputation for behaving terribly in foreign countries over the last few years. Their infamous antics aside, Chinese travelers actually contribute massively to the world’s tourism industry — including that of Singapore’s.
In the first quarter of 2017, 1.5 million Chinese tourists already made up S$1 billion (US$740 million) of our country’s tourism receipts, according to Channel NewsAsia.
To combat the bad rep of its citizens, the Chinese government has been making an effort to improve the image of Chinese tourists, issuing a 64-page Guide to Civilised Tourism and Travel back in 2013 and adding the names of the badly behaved ones to a blacklist.
Since Singapore’s a pretty attractive holiday destination for truckloads of Chinese tourists, the Chinese Embassy in Singapore also launched on Friday a new booklet containing the dos and dont’s for visitors in the Little Red Dot. According to South China Morning Post, embassy officials were actually waiting at Terminal 3 of Changi Airport to distribute the free 50-page pamphlet to travelers from China.
Interspersed with panda cartoons, the comprehensive guidebook pointed out stuff like how tourists should not cut the line at shop counters or toilets, and that lugging durians on public transport was “unofficially prohibited”, among other things. The manual also advised visitors to dress appropriately when visiting religious landmarks and refrain from booing in the theatre if performers made mistakes.
The tutorial touched on airplane etiquette, emergency services, and Singapore’s “chope-ing” culture as well, reported Channel NewsAsia.
The launch of the booklet was timed in line with China’s national Golden Week holiday on Oct 1, which traditionally sees huge numbers of Chinese citizens traveling domestically and internationally.
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