China’s 39th Golden Medal in London Olympics

The large tourist influx and shopping spree did not appear as expected; instead Central London received less tourists compared with that before the Olympics and the host city was just like a “ghost city”, British media reported. In the first week of the London Olympics, the tourist flow in London’s traditional tourist places dropped by 11% over the previous year; the turnover in the restaurants plummeted by 40%; theaters and cinemas posted a box office with a decrease of 30%; the tourist population welcomed by such famous scenic spots as the British Museum and the Tower of London fell by nearly 30%.

However, that excluded Chinese tourists.

According to statistics from VISA, during the first week of the London Olympic Games, tourists worldwide spent in London a total of 445 million pounds. The Chinese tourists spent an average of 203.04 pounds (about RMB 2,030) per purchase, 10% above that of the second-place United Arab Emirates visitors. No wonder there was a saying that Chinese tourists won the 39th golden medal in shopping in UK for China.

Because of issues like visas and the long distance to London, only 0.25 million Chinese visitors went to the London Olympics, fewer than that from the US, and as a result Chinese tourists’ total number was behind that of the US. However, Chinese tourists were absolutely“the most welcomed customers” to the British stores.

Chinese tourists’ generous spending was attributed to on the one hand their own wealth and on the other hand to the British merchants’full preparation in removing all the barriers for the Chinese customers to shop. The large department stores like Selfridges and Westfield offered Unionpay settlement. The Chinese tourists even need not open in- ternational credit cards; instead they can pay by bank cards just as what they do in China. To welcome the large influx of Chinese tourists during the London Olympics, many British shopping malls hired temporary Chinese shopping guides specially for Chinese customers. The shopping guides explained to the Chinese tourists about the airport tax refund in their native language, and even the do’s and don’ts about tax refund were all in Chinese in the leaflets.

The Chinese tourists have obviously been titled as big spenders in London. “Every day, we can sell at least 100 handbags to Chinese tourists, many of whom buy 3-4 handbags per purchase. They even like to buy several handbags in the similar style,” said Jesse, shopping guide of Louis Vuitton, “Now we’re no longer surprised at the luxury spending from the Chinese tourists. We have 3-4 Chinese shopping guides in the shop to better serve the Chinese tourists. Undoubtedly, almost all the shopping guides are now targeting at the Chinese tourists.”

“Our shop is crowded with Asian tourists every day and I think the majority are Chinese. The best seller in our shop is Burberry, for which we offered discount sale before the Olympics and almost all the items on sale have been sold out,” said Manager Ann from the Customer Service Department of Selfridges.

Apart from the luxury shops, the numerous shopping villages near London were also paradise for the Chinese tourists, such as the well-known Bicester Village, which were swarmed with tourists through the Olympics.

“I have no idea about how many items the shops can sell every day,” said Billy, driver of the shuttle bus between Bicester Village and London, “The empty-handed tourists went back with full bags.” Billy even complained that his bus could not contain so much stuff.

Liu Huixin, responsible for Chinese tourism affairs in the British Tourist Authority, told the reporter that Chinese tourists’ craziness about the luxuries had shocked the British. “During the discount season of last Christmas, Chinese tourists’purchasing power did stun the British and the British media therefore even coined a

The British Tourist Authority predicted earlier that the London Olympics would attract 30.7 million overseas tourists this year and generate a total economic revenue of 17.6 billion pounds; from 2011 to 2015, 4.4 million inbound tourists were expected to visit Britain, bringing a consumption volume of 2.3 billion pounds.