China Seeks Spillover from Neighors' World Cup

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 01, 2002

China Seeks Spillover from Neighors' World Cup

Chinese football aims to do its best in the World Cup finals to be co-hosted South Korea and Japan, so does the Chinese tourism. It is unbeatable temptation for Chinese tourism operators as more than 3.5 million fans are expected to flood into neighboring Japan and South Korea for the premier soccer tournament starting on May 31.

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2002 World Cup Football Debut in Beijing

How to lead the world cup bonanza spillover to China

How to lead the World-Cup bonanza spillover to China consequentially becomes the dominating question in their minds.

"Since fans from all over the world come to our neighbors, why not invite them to be our guests, "said Li Jichen, international marketing director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau (BTB).

China to promote itself

China hopes to follow the example set during the 1998 World Cup finals which saw not only flourishing tourism in the host France, but also a tourism boom in France's neighboring countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy.

World Cup soccer drawings completed

So when the World Cup finals, for the first time, land at Asia, China, a country famous for its 5,000-year-old history and charming culture, gets aware that this will be a window of opportunity to promote itself.

Beijing, the Chinese capital which will host the 2008 Olympic Games, came to the forefront in the bid to win over traveling fans.

They began their promotion from the Great Wall, which reads " You have come to Asia and the Great Wall is just at your foot", making use of such world-famous historical place as the selling point.

Famous sports stars invited to China

The soccer legend Pele was invited to the Great Wall to play Cuju, one of China's ancient sports which experts believe is the oldest form of soccer.

BTB said that they staged this event with strong belief that there is a great market between sport and tourism.

"Sports can always bring opportunities to tourism, "Li said." We have made up our mind to tap greatly the market of sporting tourism."

In addition, BTB also invited former Beijing-based ambassadors of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to be their tourism ambassadors among the fans of South America.

Li added that it is a boost to their World Cup campaign that foreign tourist groups have been able to get visas directly at Chinese ports of entry from January 1 this year.

He said that BTB has developed plans for fans whether they plan to visit China before, during or after the World Cup finals.

"If they choose to come here in between matches, fans will have a compact travel plan while spending less than expected.

"As their stay in China cost much less than in South Korea and Japan, the margin will offset their travel expense, which, in a sense, means they have a free travel to China,"said Li.

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