Evaluation Of The Tourist Supply Of Antwerpd The Demand Of The Chinese Tourists Visiting This City
The city of Antwerp is the second largest city of Belgium with 525. 608 people residing in 2018 (Service Public Fédéral Intérieur, 2018). Antwerp is situated in the north of Belgium, 15 kilometers south of the Dutch border and 40 kilometers north of Brussels. The Scheldt river flows through the city, connecting it with the North Sea. The name of the city, first mentioned around the 4th century, was derived from the Germanic words ‘anda’ (against) and ‘werpen’ (to throw). Being in the Dutch-speaking part of the country, Dutch is the most spoken language in the city. Another important language in the city is French. These different languages give the city different names, Antwerp is called Antwerpen in Dutch and Anvers in French. (Sankovitch & Van Roey, 1999).
One of the most important aspects of the city’s economy is the harbor of Antwerp. This harbor is the second largest in Europe and the seventh largest in the world (Antwerp. com, n. d. ). Another product of big importance is the diamond, which makes Antwerp being called the ‘diamond city’. An article by Sankovitch & Van Roey explains, ‘according to legend, the first diamond was cut in Antwerp in 1476’ (1999).
Chinese tourists in Antwerp and Belgium
The number of Chinese tourist arrivals in Belgium has increased rapidly in the past years. 101. 448 Chinese tourists arrived in Belgium in 2011, with a total amount of overnight stays around 150. 000. In 2017 these amounts had risen to 165. 425 arrivals and 244. 765 overnight stays. This means an increase of 63% in tourist arrivals from China to Belgium. When looking at Antwerp these figures are different. The number of arrivals from China to Antwerp in 2011 was 8351, compared to 9749 in 2017. One can see a rise in Chinese tourist arrivals to Antwerp of only 16% (Toerisme Vlaanderen, 2017).
People can visit countries for multiple reasons. The most important reasons are either leisure or business. Chinese traveling to Belgium are mainly going for leisure, which accounts for 68% of the total trips. Business trips account for the other 32%. When visiting Belgium for leisure, most Chinese visit Brussels and the so called ‘Groene Gordel’ (green area) around the capital city. Antwerp comes on the 3rd place with 7,2% of the total of Chinese arrivals to Belgium. Other places visited by Chinese are Bruges, Ghent and Louvain. These cities are respectively on the 4th, 6th and 7th place (Toerisme Vlaanderen, 2017).
Most Chinese visitors arrive in Belgium in the months July and August, the months in which the country is in the summer season. Besides, most Chinese have their holidays in these months (Toerisme Vlaanderen, 2017). According to an article by the European Travel Commission (2018), the average traveler from China is 35-60 years old. Antwerp and our persona, do they match? Our persona Dong Yi is from China. He is born and raised in Chengdu, Sichuan and 37 years old. He is still single because there are much more men than women in China. Dong Yi is for Chinese standards wealthy and loves to spend money on holidays. Together with a friend, Dong Yi travels with a large group of other Chinese tourists. They have an all-inclusive tour in Europe by bus. After having been in Amsterdam they have a stop in Antwerp. After that they head for Brussels. We would consider Dong Yi and his fellow travelers as psychocentric tourists, because they travel with a tour operator and have a very structured schedule. He likes to travel as easy as possible and he doesn't want to plan something his self.
Dong Yi and the other Chinese travelers all like to sleep in fancy hotels where they are always given a little extra. Free shampoo, soft slippers, a toothbrush, instant noodles. Another thing that is very important to them is a "Chinese breakfast". They are willing to pay for those extra's.
Regularly Chinese tourists like activities where they can see much, and they would love to see as much as possible in a short amount of time. They like man-made structures, natural structures, big expensive shopping malls, casino's and fan tourism.
A lot of things that Antwerp has to offer are not interesting for our target group, for example the special brewed beers, the chocolate and the nice food. The reason Chinese people go to Antwerp is because of the Cathedral, the old buildings, the port, the diamond area and big shopping centers. Besides there is the big market square where a very famous Chinese TV-series "Mr. Right" was filmed with over 360 million viewers. When we look at all the facts Dong Yi and other Chinese tourists don't seem a good target group for Antwerp. But when you dig a little deeper there are plenty of things to do and see for them. Antwerp has a beautiful old city center with beautiful buildings. Together with the Casino and the fashion museum and shopping area, Antwerp makes a good city for a city trip for the Chinese tourist.
We do think there are cities in Belgium that have more to offer to Chinese tourists, but if Antwerp makes a couple of modifications in their tourism program, they could attract more Chinese tourists. For example, they could make more Chinese speaking tours available, more Chinese proof hotels with Asian breakfast and more marketing. For now, Antwerp makes a good one-day trip.
Trends and developments in Antwerp
During the city trip to Antwerp we visited Hotel Rubens. According to the spokesman at Hotel Rubens, cities like Brussel, Bruges and Ghent are more often visited during a city trip instead of Antwerp. However, the city of Antwerp is working hard to attract more tourists and extend their stays. Antwerp tries to achieve this goal by collaborating between different companies, for example hotels, restaurants and shops. Besides, some hotels (e. g. Hotel Rubens) wants to fulfill the roll of host. Meaning that the hotel also provides the tourists with information and tips for a good restaurant or bar. Antwerp can be divided in three areas; the historical city center, ring road and central station. Most of the leisure related visitors are staying in a hotel in the historical city center, the spokesman at the hotel explained.
Antwerp counted in total 63 hotels and 4491 hotel rooms in 2017 which can be seen in the figure below. The spokesman at the Hotel Rubens also explained that one of the biggest challenges for all the hotels is Booking. com. Hotels must pay a high commission to the website. On the other hand, a lot of tourists use this platform which is also the reason why hotels keep collaborating with Booking. com. A lot of hotels are collaborating with to have their own booking platform in the future, comparable with Booking. com. You can say that a development within Antwerp’s hotel industry is dis-intermediation. The hotels want to get rid of the intermediary Booking. com and prefer guests to book a room directly or use Antwerp’s own booking platform in the future. In 2017 1. 079. 638 people visited Antwerp, the total number of overnight stays was 1. 906. 638 (Visit Antwerp, n. d. ). According to the spokesman at Hotel Rubens: · 70% of the people who visit Antwerp is leisure / tourism related· 80% of these visitors are from neighboring countries· 30% of the people who visit Antwerp are business related, mostly to the harborAntwerp is a diverse city with a lot of art and architecture.
Conclusion
We concluded that this product is quite suitable for our persona. The city of Antwerp offers a lot of popular attractions (e. g. the cathedral and the city hall) and shopping opportunities, which is specifically important to our target group. Furthermore, Chinese tourists can find a piece of home within the destination in the form of Chinatown, where they are able to find Chinese restaurants and shops. But even though the destination is attractive for our target group, most Chinese tourists come in groups to Europe to visit the biggest cities. Thus, it is more likely that they will go to Brussels than to Antwerp. As it shows in the statistics, the Chinese visitor numbers have increased less in Antwerp compared to Brussels and Flanders (Toerisme Vlaanderen, 2017). There has to be more promotion done, to make Antwerp more attractive for Chinese tourists. When we asked the LTO during the city trip, we were told that more Japanese people come to Antwerp than Chinese. But when looking at the overall incoming tourists to Belgium, the number of Chinese tourists is higher than the number of Japanese tourists. But the Chinese prefer Brussels as a destination (Toerisme Vlaanderen, 2017)To promote Antwerp, we would recommend to tour operators to include Antwerp into Europe trips for Chinese tourist groups, because we think that they would really like the city. A one day stop in Antwerp between the visit of bigger cities like Brussels and Antwerp would be an option for the tour operator.
