Spotlight: Chinese tourists expected to become most powerful buyers in winter season

China's outbound tourists are expected to spend at least 10,000 yuan (1,590 U.S. dollars) per capita during the Feb. 7-22 Spring Festival holiday season of 2016, which will once again make them the most powerful group of buyers around the world this winter.

Ctrip -- a major online travel agency in China -- anticipated that the total number of visits conducted by Chinese tourist overseas would reach a high of 6 million during the busy holiday season.

That's perfectly good news for places which are high on the list of Chinese tourists' favorite winter destinations, with the Top Ten including Seoul, Bangkok, Phuket Island, Singapore, Hong Kong of China etc, according to Ctrip.

They and others, which also want a share, have prepared with standard Chinese speaking shopping guides, hot drinking water services and discounts for holders of Chinese passports or Unionpay cards.

The break of the first seven days of the Spring Festival for most Chinese in the holiday season, traditionally a period of time for family reunions, now sees a new fashion of people spending time and money overseas.

Global retailers have found that the enormous purchasing power of Chinese shoppers may stem from needs behind every single customer, who buy for their families and friends as many brands have wide pricing discrepancies in different countries.

Li Fu, a Shanghai girl, who spent around 20,000 yuan (3,180 U.S. dollars) in her trip to Japan, stuffed 30 kg of cosmetics, watches and small appliances into her luggage back to China. "Many of my family members and friends heard my plan to travel and asked me to buy goods for them overseas," she said.

According to Japan's tourism agency, Chinese tourists' visits to Japan topped 4.3 million in the first 10 months of 2015 and their per capita consumption increased to 2,490 U.S. dollars in 2015 from 1,878 dollars in 2014.

Chen Xi, a young business woman from Beijing, rushed to Ginza after landing at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport Thursday, joining in numerous Chinese tourists shuttling between department stores and specialty shops in the well-known commercial zone.

Although a majority of Chinese visitors in Japan spent their money mainly in shopping, an increasing number are becoming keener than others to spend more time in self-guided tours experiencing the archipelago country.

Dressing in kimono with geisha makeup and walking in side streets of Kyoto being a popular choice, wonderful natural sceneries from Hokkaido in the north to the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa are also great attractions to Chinese tourists.

Similar change from "tourists" to "travelers" are also found among Chinese visitors in France, a favorable destination for many to pick luxury goods.

According to UnionPay International, increasing numbers of Chinese tourists in France have been opting for cultural and leisure experiences other than mere shopping, turning from duty-free shops, department stores and luxury stores to wineries, antique stores and art galleries.

Russia has also joined the race to attract Chinese tourists in the Spring Festival holiday season as the ruble's devaluation makes the trip cost efficient.

Chinese tourists in Russia spent between 800 million and 1 billion dollars in 2015, said Svetlana Pyatikhatka, the executive director of Russian tourist association "World without Borders".

Pyatikhatka highlighted the importance of training standard Chinese speaking professional guides. Currently there are only 96 officially accredited standard Chinese speaking guides in Moscow, and the number should increase to 200 by the end of 2016, said the director.

Likewise, Indonesia, an archipelago country, is also selling its customized special program for Chinese tourists, including solar eclipse package and unique celebrations of the Spring Festival.

The preparation started in last September, and the country is getting ready for receiving 2.1 million tourists from China this year, said a deputy to Indonesia's Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

"It is almost a Chinese New Year. We have arranged 65 chartered flights which will carry around 23,000 Chinese tourists from China's 10 big cities to Indonesia during the Chinese celebration, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou," the minister said. Enditem

(Liu Tian in Tokyo, Peng Tianxiao in Moscow and Zheng Shibo in Jakarta also contributed to the stor