ChinaOB Daily: London, Ireland, UK, South Africa, Korea

Editor’s note: We’ve recently started a new daily roundup of news affecting outbound business, for countries trying to attract Chinese travelers. Follow all news from ChinaOB Daily, here.

• How London can attract more Chinese visitors: “For the UK, I’ve long argued that the focus should be squarely on high net worth individuals and small groups of discerning tourists. It would be better to have 400,000 Chinese who spend £3000 on their visit than a million who spend £1000. In 2005, the idea that Chinese would outspend Americans, Japanese, and even Middle Eastern tourists seemed ridiculous, but this is fast becoming the reality.”
• Irish businesses take Chinese tourism course: A number of well-known Irish businesses are heading to Adare this week for a course on how to maximises the opportunities offered by the rapidly growing Chinese tourist market.
• UK Immigration minister says visa for Chinese travelers is getting better: Immigration minister Mark Harper says it’s a misconception that Chinese visitors have a hard time getting a UK visa and it’s time to stop knocking the system…The facts speak for themselves – almost 300,000 visas were issued in 2012 with the vast majority processed in 15 days and around half in just five days.
• South Africa aiming at Chinese family travelers: South African Tourism launched a three-month program on Friday targeting Chinese families. Four Chinese travel agencies, including China International Tourism Service Ltd and China Youth Travel Service, are taking part in the program. The four agencies aim to attract more than 1,000 Chinese families to South Africa through the program, which runs between Aug and Oct.
• South Korea struggling without Japanese tourists, but aiming for Chinese: Approx 689,000 Japanese travellers visited South Korea during the first three months of 2013, a 22 percent decline compared with the same period last year…South Korea is welcoming more tourists from countries like China…More than half a million Chinese tourists visited South Korea in the first quarter of 2013, up 71 percent from the same period last year.