紐約城的新挑戰 該怎麼取悅中國遊客

New York City’s tourism officials have solved the riddle of how to attract the Chinese.

紐約市的旅遊官員已經解決了如何吸引中國遊客的問題。

The challenge now may lie in impressing them once they arrive.

如今的挑戰可能在於如何讓到來的中國遊客有深刻的好印象。

Chinese tourists, who have been flocking to New York in rising numbers for a decade, accounted for nearly one million of the record 60.3 million visitors to the city in 2016, city officials said.

紐約市官員說，十年來，涌入紐約的中國遊客人數越來越多，2016年來這個城市旅遊的6030萬人中，已有近100萬是中國人。

But some, like Li Chen, a retired bureaucrat from Beijing, are far from awed by the scale of America’s biggest city.

但有些人對美國這個最大城市的規模遠沒有到驚歎的程度，比如北京退休官僚陳力（音）。

Mr Chen said he and the five friends he was sightseeing with on Friday expected New York to have taller buildings and wider streets.

陳力說，他和五名與他一起來觀光的朋友覺得，紐約的大樓不夠高，街道太窄。

They were also disappointed that they could not get a look inside the New York Stock Exchange.

他們對不能到紐約證券交易所裏面看看也頗感失望。

We don’t want to just see the door, Mr Chen said through an interpreter while sipping hot tea on a cruise of New York Harbor operated by Hornblower New York.

我們不想只看看大門，陳力通過翻譯說，他正坐在霍恩布洛爾(Hornblower New York)經營的紐約港觀光遊輪上喝着熱茶。

Closing the door is like closing the door to prosperity.

關着門就像是把繁榮關在了外邊。

Hornblower bills the tour as international, but the narration piped through the speakers is only in English and Mandarin.

霍恩布洛爾宣稱觀光遊輪提供國際服務，但船上的揚聲器裏播放的解說只有英語和普通話。

Visitors from China are easily the largest group of foreign tourists on Hornblower’s tours, said Zichao Xie, the company’s international sightseeing manager.

來自中國的遊客毫不費力地成爲霍恩布洛爾觀光輪上最大的外國遊客羣，該公司的國際觀光經理謝姿超（音）說。

Ms Xie said the company carried about 300,000 Chinese passengers this year, accounting for about one-quarter of its revenue.

謝女士說，今年約有30萬中國遊客乘坐了公司的遊輪，爲公司提供了其收入的大約四分之一。

The Chinese surpassed Brazilians and Canadians in the ranks of tourists to the city this year and will overtake the British by 2022, said Fred Dixon, the chief executive of NYC & Company, the city’s tourism marketer.

負責擴展紐約市旅遊業的NYC & Company公司的首席執行官弗雷德•迪克森(Fred Dixon)說，來紐約的外國遊客國籍排名中，中國人今年超過了巴西人和加拿大人，並將在2022年超過英國人。

He said the city had more than 950,000 visitors from China this year, a sevenfold increase since 2007.

他說，今年來紐約旅遊的中國人已超過95萬，中國遊客人數自2007年以來增長了7倍。

Back then, more than 15 countries, including Switzerland and Israel, sent more tourists to New York than China did, according to NYC & Company’s statistics.

據公司的統計數據，那年來紐約觀光的外國遊客中，有包括瑞士和以色列在內的15個國家的遊客人數超過中國。

In 2016, only visitors from Britain outnumbered the Chinese — and their total of about 1.2 million has not grown since 2007.

而在2016年，只有來自英國的遊客人數超過了中國，但英國遊客數量自2007年以來沒有增長，一直保持在約120萬。

The Chinese still travel mostly in groups, moving around on chartered buses and often staying in hotels outside the city, Ms Xie said.

中國人仍然主要是以旅遊團的形式，行動靠旅遊公司的包車，經常在城外的酒店住宿。

But Mr Dixon said his organization had begun to focus on attracting more Chinese tourists traveling on their own or in small groups like Mr Chen’s.

但迪克森說，他的機構已經開始將注意力轉向吸引更多的中國個體遊客、或像陳力這樣的小團體遊客。

Those men flew from Shanghai with a larger group but broke off from it and were staying in a hotel in Lower Manhattan.

陳力和朋友們與一個更大的旅遊團一起從上海飛到紐約，但到後就與該團分開行動，入住了曼哈頓下城的一家酒店。

They planned to go uptown to shop on Fifth Avenue, then head on Saturday to the Woodbury Common outlet mall, one of the most popular excursions for Chinese tourists, about 50 miles north of the city.

他們計劃去上城的第五大道購物，然後週六去伍德伯里名牌折扣購物中心(Woodbury Common outlet mall)，這是最受中國遊客歡迎的旅遊目的地之一，在紐約市以北部約80公里的地方。

That individual travel market is the biggest opportunity, Mr Dixon said.

個體旅行的市場是最大的機會，迪克森說。

That’s the future of the Chinese market.

那是中國市場的未來。

Emily Rafferty, chairwoman of NYC & Company, said she had recently attended a conference in Shenzhen, China, and met a group of local university students.

NYC＆Company董事長艾米莉•拉弗爾蒂(Emily Rafferty)說，她最近到中國深圳參加了一個會議，見到了一羣當地的大學生。

They were all wanting to come over to America, Ms Rafferty said.

他們都想來美國，拉弗爾蒂說。

The number of people under the age of 35 there is huge.

那裏年齡在35歲以下的人多了不得了。

At the Museum of Chinese in America, on Centre Street in Manhattan, the boom in Chinese tourism has not really paid off yet.

對位於曼哈頓中心街的美國華人博物館(Museum of Chinese in America)來說，中國遊客人數的增長還沒有帶來真正的好處。

The president of the museum, Nancy Yao Maasbach, said the tourists tended to stick to the best-known destinations.

博物館館長姚南薰(Nancy Yao Maasbach)說，中國遊客傾向於只去更有名的景點。

Our strategy has actually been that the more popular we become in the U.S., the more popular we will become to Chinese tourists, Ms Maasbach said.

我們的策略實際上是，我們越是在美國受歡迎，我們就會成爲越受中國遊客喜歡的地方，姚南薰說。

Mr Dixon said the Chinese were still spending freely, while visitors from Europe were cutting back as the dollar strengthened and reduced the buying power of the euro and other currencies.

迪克森說，中國人花錢仍很大方，雖然隨着美元走強、歐元和其他貨幣的購買力下降，來自歐洲的遊客已在消減開支。

He said NYC & Company had begun emphasizing value and bargains in some of its advertising to the British and other Europeans, including a campaign this winter called See It for Yourself, in partnership with British Airways.

他說，NYC & Company已在面向英國和其他歐洲國家的廣告中強調物有所值和減價優惠，包括今年冬天與英國航空公司聯合搞的名爲自己去看看(See It for Yourself)的促銷活動。

Those audiences might be easier to impress, judging by the reactions of Tony Neville and James Hopkinson, two first-time visitors from Yorkshire, England, who fit in some sightseeing on Friday after completing a work project.

從兩位來自英國約克郡的首次訪客託尼•內維爾(Tony Neville)和詹姆斯•霍普金森(James Hopkinson)的反應來看，打動英國人也許更容易一些，這兩人在週五完成了一個項目後，抽時間進行了觀光。

Mr Neville, 36, said New York was bigger than he had imagined.

36歲的內維爾說，紐約比他想象的要大。

This just blows London out of the water, to me, he said.

倫敦在我看來微不足道，他說。

Mr Hopkinson said they had been surprised by how friendly, well mannered and courteous the local people they encountered had been.

霍普金森說，他們對自己遇到的當地人如此友善、有風度和有禮貌感到驚訝。

They even liked the American beers they had found, he said, sipping from a can of Brooklyn Lager.

他說，他們甚至喜歡他們在美國找到的啤酒，邊說邊從一個布魯克林拉格罐中喝了一口。

Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor responsible for economic development, said Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration wanted to diversify the city’s tourist base so that it could weather economic downturns in Europe.

負責經濟發展的副市長艾麗西亞•格倫(Alicia Glen)說，市長白思豪(Bill de Blasio)的政府希望讓紐約旅遊業的大本營多樣化，以便能度過歐洲的經濟衰退。

Toward that end, the city increased its contribution to NYC & Company’s budget this year by $3.5 million, to about $21 million, she said.

爲了這個目的，紐約市政府今年對NYC & Company預算的貢獻增加了350萬美元，達到2100萬美元，她說。

Promoting tourism is an investment aimed at attracting visitors to spend money and at creating jobs, especially for less-skilled workers, Ms Glen said.

格倫說，促進旅遊業是一種投資，其目的是吸引遊客花錢、創造就業機會，尤其是爲低技能的工人。

She said she tried to help out last week when she was on a plane full of Chileans flying to New York from South America.

她說，她上週在一架滿載智利遊客的南美飛紐約的班機上曾試圖幫助推銷景點。

Ms Glen said that the Chileans had been excited to visit the new Whitney Museum of American Art and to walk on the High Line in Manhattan, but that she had tried to persuade them to try the Brooklyn Museum, too.

格倫說，智利遊客對參觀惠特尼美國藝術博物館新館、在曼哈頓的(High Line)漫步很感興趣，不過，她試圖說服他們也去布魯克林博物館看看。

They used to go to Miami all the time, she said of Chileans.

他們以前常去邁阿密，她提到智利遊客時說。

But Miami is so over.

但邁阿密對他們來說早就沒有意思了。