France and China in the world tourist competition

Résumé du document

By the Socialist Economy of Market in China, started up in 1976 by Deng Xiaoping, China has showed its amazing capacity to recover and to succeed each thing undertaken. In the case of tourism, it's likely to be the same soon. The World Tourism Organization already forecasts that in 2014 the Chinese Dragon will probably overtake the French leader in term of tourist appeal. So this study tries to clarify the reasons for this new Chinese success and to understand why France is not ready to lose its first rank without fighting. First, the study will compare the tourist potential of both countries. Second, it will underline the stake of the struggle on each side. Finally, it explains that if it's only a question of time before China gets the leadership in tourism, France will profit by cooperating with it.

Extraits

[...] The risk is the same for tourism. With going too fast without precautions, some tourist sites could be wounded by the pressure of the number of tourists. Moreover, Chinese authorities always seem to have difficulties to find the good balance between modernity and tradition, between growth and respect of natural sites which entails to absurd destructions: for instance, the building of the dam of the Three Gorges with the overwhelming of a large part of the gorge of the Yangtsé or the destruction of several traditional district in Beijing to build the Olympic facilities. [...]

[...] To France the economic stake is different. It's an ageing country which doesn't profit a dynamic growth like China. Its industry has more and more difficulties competing with emerging countries' and the service industry, mostly tourism, appears as the which avoids French growth to collapse. Indeed, the positive balance of tourism (with a surplus of 8,9 billion Euros) permits to slow down the increase in the budget deficit whereas most of the other sectors don't succeed. So, that's why it's a strategic sector for French government: it's its priority to maintain the competitiveness of French tourist industry. [...]

[...] It's true that China always has to cope with numerous issues and the first is probably employment. Since the end of the communist system in the economy, China has had to provide the population with 10 million jobs a year to avoid economic and social instability due to the unemployment. Tourism is one of the solutions: it permits the fast setting up of numerous businesses and companies leading to the fast creation of numerous jobs. Tourism permits to get social benefits too (leisure activities, exchange between cultures). [...]

[...] So, tourism which takes a large part in the service industry has become a huge stake to get economic growth and to maintain his country as a main challenger in the world economy. It explains why China and France focus on this sector. To China, too often considered as a mere “subcontractor for foreign industries”, tourism appears as a good way to get a more powerful role in the economy. So little by little, thanks to the efforts of Chinese government, tourism is becoming the new engine of growth in China: the turnover of the tourist industry already counts for of the GDP and it employs of the working population. [...]

[...] But it remains to know if China will follow the French example in the management of its tourist industry. The risk for China is to lose a part of its history if tourism turns into a run for easy profits. [...]