Guess the city!
Hello everybody, it's time for a new Guess the city! The answer of the last Guess the city! is Beijing.Can you guess which Chinese city this is?
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| Guess the city! |
Comment on the comment section below!
Friday, October 14, 2016
CSR and tourism
This
week’s article will focus on corporate social responsibility and tourism.
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| Traditional Chinese hotel |
CSR and tourism
The
tourism industry is a big industry where CSR principles are not very often
common practices. As a result of the tourism industry the energy consumption is
rising, increased cost of garbage and sewage disposal, surface consumption and
loss of biodiversity put a lot of pressure on the environment. Yet pure,
unsullied nature, beautiful landscapes, cultural heritage and foreign cultures
represent the core elements of the supply side of tourism. To maintain these
elements, the resources vital to tourism must be managed in a sustainable way
and a preference for sustainable products and services should be encouraged
through corporate social responsibility.  |
| Traditional Chinese hotel |
Hotels in China and sustainability
China
is in the middle of an economic boom and it’s also has the world’s largest
programme of new hotel construction. The country’s hotel development continues
at a pace that would see at least three new 150+ room hotels every day in the
next years. China currently has 2.7 million hotel rooms but that number is
expected to grow to 9.1 million by 2039. The result of China’s hotel growth is increases in energy and water consumption and an rising carbon footprint. China’s hotels consume more water and energy per square metre and per occupied room than those in other countries. The most important reason is that sustainability is not always a priority for some firms. They don’t even have the capital to upgrade their equipment for the conservation of water and energy.
Importance of CSR principles for organisations
It can help organizations to bolster the image of their organization for the outside pubic. They show to their customers that they are willing to invest in CSR and do not care only about profit. The companies are seen as more trustful and reliable to their customers. It can even grow your customer base as you’re attracting a different customer segment. At first it looks like a big investment for companies to work with CSR principle but at the end it will help the business grow.Branding has changed as a result of digital media creating real-time conversations about companies’ activities whether or not the companies want it. Consumers expect transparency, authenticity and higher standards of ethical conduct from organisations. Therefore it is important to have CSR guidelines. Unilever, for example, takes the number one spot in the ranking for its corporate goal to ‘make sustainable living commonplace’, which is evident in projects such as Foundry Ideas, a global crowdsourcing platform that looks to solve sustainability issues in the areas of nutrition, sanitation and hygiene.
Control aspects
It is
important to have a controlling authority which can check whether the companies
comply to CSR guidelines. As we see in other sectors companies do not always
take the necessary measures to assure guidelines. The melamine scandal in China
for example is an perfect example of a company which did not comply to the
rules and due to the lack of a control mechanism it ended dramatically. The melamine scandal back in
2008 were milk companies mixed up milk with melamine. Six children died and an
estimated 54.000 babies were hospitalized. It is important to have a third party or an international organization which can check whether these guidelines are followed by the companies.
Bibliography
Chahal, m. (2015, 10 13). Marketingweek. Retrieved from www.marketingweek.com:
https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/10/13/the-top-100-companies-for-brand-purpose/
European Cities Marketing. (2011, 09 12).
Corporate social responsibility and toursim. Retrieved from
www.europeancitiesmarketing.com:
http://www.europeancitiesmarketing.com/corporate-social-responsibility-and-tourism/
O'Neill, S. (2016, June 9). Hotels in
China must be more sustainable says report. Retrieved from
www.greenhotelier.org: http://www.greenhotelier.org/our-themes/energy/hotels-in-china-must-be-more-sustainable-says-report/
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Friday, October 7, 2016
Trade risks and legal risks for doing business with
China
China
is considered as the factory of the world, it is set to overtake the United
States as the number one destination for manufacturing. Outsourcing production
to China can be lucrative but you must be aware of the risks and challenges.
This article will focus on trade risks and legal risks for doing business with
China.  |
| Doing Business in China |
Risks in trading with China
As I
explained in the introduction it is important to understand the possible
difficulties you may encounter when you are doing business with China. One of
the most important risk faced by foreign
investors are volatile political systems. The risk that a government is able to
seize foreign assets and nationalize the
company. A perfect example is the nationalization of YPF (Repsol), Argentina’s
largest energy firm, without the knowledge of Repsol. Other important things companies should pay attention on are: commercial fraud, breaches of contract, intellectual property infringement and theft, bullying, intimidation, restrictions on movement and criminal charges for engaging in activities that may not contrite crimes under the law of the country of origin.
Cultural aspects
The
culture of China also plays a role in a potential trade risk when doing business
with China. One important topic in the West when doing business is ethics. The
way you should deal with ethical dilemmas and knowing what’s wrong and good.
Ethics in China is not an important topic as of now. In the west it is not done to assign family members in your company or select a family company to do a job, this is normal in China.
Furthermore it is important to have your connexions in China in order to do business with China. To get those connexions it is important to have patience. It takes quite a while for the Chinese companies to trust the Western companies. It is important for a western company to build a relation with its partner company in China. So don’t be surprised if you get invited by you partner for a drink.
Tips
To
make a success of the business you want to set up in or with China it is
important that you have the knowledge about doing business with China. If you
don’t have the knowledge look for
somebody who has the knowledge of the Chinese market. This can be done
by hiring a Chinese company who can arrange all the stuff and information you
need. Furthermore it is important to seek professional advice , legal
advice, be aware of local regulations
and try to understand the local practices.
Bibliography
Australian Trade and Investment
Commission. (2016, October 7). China: Business risks. Retrieved from
www.austrade.gov.au:
https://www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/Export-markets/Countries/China/Doing-business/Business-risks
Dries, R. (2016). Legal and trade risk in
China. Legal and trade risk in China (p. 15). Deventer: Dries, Ruben.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Chinese consumer behaviour and tourism
A
greater disposable income and a rise of the Chinese population lead to an
increase of outbound travel as more people can afford the luxury of going
abroad. Because of this enormous potential it’s very important to focus and get
know-how on Chinese consumer behaviour and it’s relation to tourism. So this
article will focus on Chinese consumer behaviour and it’s relation to tourism.
What are the key Products Chinese buy in China versus
their vacation destination?
According
to GoldmanSachs, Chinese consumer spending can be broken down into seven
categories. These are: Looking more beautiful, eating better, better home, more
mobility/connectivity, having more fun, well-being/health/education and luxury.The above mentioned seven categories is an logical result of a greater disposable income and rise of the Chinese economy. The above mentioned categories are non-essential luxury products which will increase more and more in the upcoming years if this income rise trend continuous.
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| The Seven Key Consumer Desires |
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| Purpose of Travel |
Apparently Chinese tourist prefer to shop abroad rather than in China. But why do they prefer to shop abroad? Well there are numerous reasons for it, which I will explain below:
Lack of trust into Chinese products/brands: This is the most important reason why Chinese buy their products abroad rather than in China. As you may remember the melamine scandal back in 2008 were milk companies mixed up milk with melamine. Six children died and an estimated 54.000 babies were hospitalized. Chinese are very concerned about the safety of products. That’s why they prefer products abroad.
High prices and taxes of products: Foreign products/brands are very expensive in to buy in China. Due to high import taxes it is very expensive to buy ‘western’ luxury brands in China. It’s better for the Chinese to go abroad and buy the products there.
What does a basic Chinese diet require and do they
care about a Chinese diet being offered in a hotel?
Every
country has its own cuisine and special dishes. There are even differences
between regions within an country when it comes to the cuisine/dishes. But
Chinese food is really different compared to the Western style cuisine. Due to
this it sometimes brings difficulties to tourists who are not ‘easy eaters’. Chinese
travellers do not easily accept other cuisines when they’re abroad. To ensure
their satisfaction it is desirable to offer Chinese meals. But there are differences between provinces and the different tastes of Chinese people. People from the south like fresh food with a little spice whereas people from the south-west enjoy spicy food. People from Shanghai enjoy sweet food and people from the North of China prefer the more salty and oily cuisine.
So you may wonder how are you going to satisfy the Chinese tourists when they are so different in their preferences of food. Well they may differ on some small things but they have more in common than you think.
First of all Chinese tend to eat early. Breakfast starts at 06:00/07:00 in the morning followed by lunch at 11:30/12:00 at noon and dinner at 18:00/19:00 in the evening. The early dinning gives them the opportunity to go to the city centre for some entertainment.
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| Typical Chinese meal |
Chinese like food which are liquid and soft (hot pod, noodles etc.), but make sure you avoid serving soft boiled eggs and avoid using too many milk products.
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| Typical Chinese meal |
The hot water is not only important for the tea but also for the noodles. Chinese often bring noodles with them in case the local food wasn’t good or wasn’t enough for them.
Bibliography
chinacontact.org. (2015, October
12). China outbound tourism education series part 16: Consumer behaviour.
Retrieved from www.chinacontact.org:
http://www.chinacontact.org/en/china-outbound-tourism-education-series-part-16-consumer-behaviour/
Goldmansachs. (2016, January 1). The
rise of China's new consumer class. Retrieved from www.goldmansachs.com:
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/macroeconomic-insights/growth-of-china/chinese-consumer/
Rafat, A. (013, January 3). The
cultural cliches the travel industry uses for Chinese tourists. Retrieved
from www.skift.com:
https://skift.com/2013/01/03/the-cultural-cliches-travel-industry-uses-for-chinese-tourists/
Sanders, E. (2016). Consumer behaviour
and tourism. Deventer: Chinatalk.
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