New tech guides Chinese tourists through foreign cuisine

SHANGHAI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Fu Xiao, a Shanghai resident, has been searching review websites and travel apps for food for an upcoming trip to Sri Lanka during the National Day holiday in October

"Exotic cuisine can be as attractive as beautiful scenery to me, and sometimes good food is what people travel for," said Fu.

According to the China Tourism Academy, domestic tourists made 4.44 billion trips last year, up 11 percent year on year, with 122 million outbound trips made in 2016.

Many Chinese tourists have become "gastronomes" or even "professional tasters" when traveling abroad, said Liu Xiaozhou of Ctrip Gourmet List. The list has 6,000 restaurants available for online booking.

Liu said Chinese tourists to overseas destinations, who are growing in number, are prepared to spend more on food and drinks, and younger tourists are more likely to book restaurants before departure.

However, language barriers and cultural differences may hinder their dining plans.

According to a recent report by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, "cuisine" is the top concern Chinese tourists need help or advice about, trumping sight-seeing and transportation.

Companies from both China and abroad are developing new services to meet those demands.

"Information is much more diverse than before, because travellers share their personal experience and give reviews," said Wang Qian from Shanghai.

Ctrip aims to extend the list of restaurants available for booking to 12,000 by the end of this year.