Quality wins consumers

Chinese visitors at Stonehenge, a prehistoric site in Wiltshire, England. [Photo by Zhang Guilan / For China Daily]

Media reports about the amount Chinese tourists spent in Japan during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday will no doubt once again rankle with domestic manufacturers.

But they should not simply complain about Chinese consumer's having an "unprincipled preference" for foreign brands.

Reports about Chinese visitors to Japan snapping up Japanese toilet seat covers in late 2015 already gave a slap in the face to domestic manufacturers, and sparked calls for them to raise their product quality.

If domestic manufacturers are reluctant to reflect on why Chinese consumers exhibit such enthusiasm for buying foreign brands, the recent warning by the media in the Republic of Korea that some of the country's vendors have been swindling money out of Chinese tourists, and this has been driving Chinese shoppers from the ROK to Japan should cause them pause for thought.

Domestic manufacturers have no reason to remain indifferent to the continuous outflow of domestic buyers when ROK vendors and manufacturers are being urged to retain Chinese buyers.

Mainland tourists have become increasingly discerning about the quality of products and services they buy. And Chinese people travelling overseas are no longer "fools with money" as they were labeled by some in the past.

They have become more rational and mature about their spending, as indicated by their preferences when buying abroad.

Quality and value for money are now the main factors deciding whether and where they will open their wallets.

With China opening wider to the outside world, Chinese people are increasingly choosing to cast a vote with their feet against any low quality and bad services.