Two foreign tourists pose for a "selfie" at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing in October. ZOU WEILIN/CHINA DAILY

Unresolved issues

Griffin said he enjoys his trips around China, but several factors may prompt potential visitors to reconsider. "First of all, so many places suffer from a lot of pollution of all kinds - air, water and so on - and a lot of local people, especially in the countryside, make things worse by throwing garbage in the streets, expectorating and spitting seeds everywhere," he said.

Another issue is the way tourist destinations have been developed. "A lot of them aren't enjoyable to visit anymore, because they have lost their sense of authenticity. The buildings have been rebuilt in a way that makes the experience feel too 'packaged'," he said.

"Most Western tourists like to feel as though they're traveling to unique places that have a connection with something bigger. For some people, that 'bigger thing' is history, for others it might be the natural scenery or adventure. In China, all those things are obscured by tourism development zones that make the experience feel like a visit to a shopping mall. So travelers can't feel like they have connected to something bigger than themselves."

Moreover, people who have never visited China may be reluctant to plan trips because of the distance, cost, the language barrier, visas and even the "bad reputation of Chinese people".

Writing on a social networking platform, Marina Coelho, 35, from Pelotas in southern Brazil, said: "I would go, but it's very low on my list of priorities. Too far, too expensive, and there are language issues."

Roberta Manaa, from Rio de Janeiro, commented on the distance, pollution and a number of incidents that have made headlines across the world, such as the Chinese teenager who defaced a 3,500-year-old temple in Egypt: "If they behave so badly as tourists, one can only imagine how they are at home."

Double trouble

The domestic tourism industry is now facing a double whammy, because many Chinese are also complaining that travelling around the country is not worth the money, and they run the risk of being overcharged and cheated at tourist destinations.

During the National Day holiday in September, a tourist in Qingdao, Shandong province, was forced to pay 1,520 yuan ($233) after ordering a dish of prawns. When they made the order, the customer was told that the price was 38 yuan per dish, but that was later changed to 38 yuan per prawn. Despite complaining to the police, the tourist still had to pay the inflated bill.

Shen Yiren, a market manager for an Internet company, has already planned a series of overseas trips. He said the standards offered by internal tourist venues are unacceptably low.

"Too many people are packed into fake scenic spots that offer bad, overpriced food, not to mention all the traps - such as taxi drivers taking long detours to charge you more and tour guides taking you to buy fake souvenirs, just to get kickbacks. It's awful," said the 29-year-old resident of Shenzhen, Guangdong province. "In the past, it was expensive to visit foreign countries, but now a trip to Thailand costs no more than a trip to Yunnan province. Why bother?"

Wang Yanyong, director of the Tourism Development and Planning Research Center at Beijing Jiaotong University, said low levels of service could prompt Chinese tourists to look elsewhere: "Nowadays, the cost of traveling overseas is very low. Many tourists have experienced good service overseas and they will not tolerate poor service at home."

Future measures

Dai Bin, director of the China Tourism Academy, a think tank at the China National Tourism Administration, said he is optimistic about the development of inbound tourism over the next five years because the market is becoming more mature, and a larger number of big players would provide better tourism products to meet the demands of a greater number of "picky customers".

However, he called for more policies to stimulate the market, especially a long-term, national-level strategy to coordinate various sectors, including aviation, visas and finance, and to promote China's image as a tourism destination.

"The first thing to consider is how to make it much easier and friendlier for foreigners to visit us. This means simplified visa application procedures, more airline connections and we must make it more convenient for tourists to spend money in China," he said.

"The second is how to reintroduce China to the rest of the world, how to use their own languages to tell the Chinese story," he added. "In the past, it was all about us - just telling people about the country's natural beauty and long history - but visiting China is not just about seeing ancient sites. Many foreign visitors want to experience the modern side of China."

Wang Qing, a senior official with the Beijing Tourism Development Commission, said the next move will be to extend the current 72-hour visa-free transit policy - under which visitors with ongoing travel documents are allowed to stay in major cities for three days without having to apply for a visa - to 144 hours and to link the current 18 points of entry to form an integrated transit area.

"The main reasons behind the sluggish development (of inbound tourism) are pollution, the language barrier and a lack of price competitiveness as a result of the exchange rate. However, we can't blame everything on those factors, so we also need to consider how to improve the experience for all our visitors," Wang said.