Spain’s hotels swotting-up in preparation for Chinese influx

Chinese tourists bring bags of cash, but also demand certain standards, services and behaviours from their hosts.

No physical contact upon greeting, menus in Mandarin, and no rooms on the fourth floor or with a number four in them: these are just a selection of the holes many Spanish hotels are willing to jump through this year in order to win the approval of Chinese tourists…

According to Chinese Friendly International, an organisation that is recognised throughout the EU as a proxy China tourism board, more than 300,000 Chinese tourists are expected to visit Spain this year, with that number rising to one million per year by the end of the decade.

Chinese tourists bring big bucks, but also require certain standards and a rigid set of demands. With more than 100 million Chinese tourists visiting the four corners of the world this year, their impact is heavily felt – and being shunned en masse by these tourists that famously travel in packs and spread word-of-mouth approval or warnings like wildfire is simply not a financially sound option.

“It is paradoxical that a country as popular as Spain is practically unknown in China,” said Chinese Friendly International Chief Executive Kurt Grotsch.

Hence, Grotsch has been working with a number of Spanish hotels to help them improve the service they offer to Chinese guests in the hope that their positive experiences are relayed to fellow Chinese back home.

Some of the adjustments hoteliers are being requested to carry out make perfect sense – menus in Mandarin, waiting staff that know a few Mandarin phrases – while others are wonderfully odd.

Hotels should not, for example, offer Chinese guests a room with a number four in it, nor on the fourth floor. The reason? The number four sounds very similar to ‘death’ in Mandarin, and so many Chinese people go to great lengths to avoid the number.

Hotels should also not offer fruit whole, serving it instead in manageable portions, while meals should always be served with hot – not boiling – water. And like the Brits, the Chinese like to have a kettle in their room, even if the purpose for many is to cook freeze-dried noodles that they have on their person.

Waiters, as well as learning a smattering of the lingo, should serve the eldest or most experienced/educated guest first, and pointing is done with the whole hand, not the finger.

“Word-of-mouth counts for a lot in China,” said Grotsch. “If a Chinese person enjoys themselves somewhere, more will come. Often you can become Chinese-friendly without any great investment.”

Famed for their reputation as being rude, ignorant and pushy travellers, Chinese tourists are keen to alter their image abroad, hence the creation of the Chinese Friendly International programme, which bestows ‘Chinese-friendly’ awards on hotels that earn the approval of Chinese visitors.

Spain currently boasts 14 Chinese-friendly hotels, including the five-star Vincci hotel in Málaga, which recently earned the award. “Being rated Chinese-friendly by a recognised association is a big help in dealing with Chinese companies and positioning ourselves in an emerging market,” said Vincci Marketing Director Alex Rodríguez.

If the Chinese spend just a fraction of the sums Brits pour into Spain every year, then it is a ploy that will be more than worth it.