Millions of China travellers are shaking up the world's tourism industry.新蒲崗迷你倉 The Sunday Times spotlights the impact in five key destinations for the Chinese.Kota Kinabalu restaurant supervisor Wong May Yee remembers a time when she could take at least five days off during the Chinese New Year.These days, she says with a laugh, she has to beg her boss for just one day off, because a Chinese tourist boom has taken hold of Sabah's capital."These tourists come for holiday as if the rest of us Chinese don't need holidays," said Ms Wong, 50.In many parts of Malaysia, and particularly in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese New Year is no longer a quiet time because tourists from China crowd shopping malls and restaurants."Islands and beaches for a week and then shopping, shopping, shopping," is how Ms Wince Chuah, head of inbound tours at Mayflower Acme Tours travel agency in Kuala Lumpur, sums up the typical itinerary of a Chinese visitor.Now niche attractions providing all-in services to the Chinese are becoming popular. Durian tours, fishing excursions and golf getaways are offered alongside outdoor trips like cave expeditions in Sarawak and scuba trips to Sipadan.Some who have become familiar with Malaysia and have local friends take off on their own."Let them rent a coach for eight hours and off they go anywhere they like within Klang Valley," said Ms Chuah.Malaysia expects a record two million Chinese tourists during Visit Malaysia Year 2014, an event that has been held every three years since 1990.It is anchored by three "super sale" seasons in January, March, and June and specially packed with features and events 迷你倉o welcome tourists.Arrivals from China have risen 64 per cent between 2008 and 2012 and the Chinese are now the third-largest group of visitors after Singaporeans and Indonesians. There were 1.56 million tourists from China in 2012 compared to just under 950,000 in 2008."Back in 1999 when we first started promoting Malaysia in China, our government officers thought China was not a big supply for tourism," said former tourism minister Ng Yen Yen, now chairman of the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board. "We thought they had no money to travel and Malaysia had to ease up visa applications for them."Mr Wong Hing Tuck, a 20-year veteran tourist guide and a China market expert, said: "It's no longer about the quantity but the quality of these 'high end' tourists."As in other countries, complaints about the sometimes unsavoury behaviour of tourists from China are common. It became such a problem that China's National Tourism Administration released a guidebook last October on the dos and don'ts of travelling abroad, loosely translated to "Guide To Civilised Tourism And Travel".But the visitors are changing."Ten years ago, tourist guides had to advise and teach them," Mr Wong told The Sunday Times. "Some would spit and smoke inside their tour buses, and some men would take off their shirts when eating in a bak kut teh restaurant. But it's how they behave back home."Today, Mr Wong says some locals still complain about Chinese tourists hoarding food from buffet tables or talking loudly in hotels and waking other guests, but adds: "There is more awareness (among the Chinese) about how to act while you're abroad."迷你倉將軍澳
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