Chinese tourists - what do they want? Facts, ideas and successful examples: Facts, ideas and successful examples

By Ingemar Fredriksson

The world has never seen such a huge business opportunity for which they have so little understanding of how to address it. Many entrepreneurs have, more or less seriously, dreamt of being able to sell just one product to every single Chinese. That dream is now quickly turning into a possibility for many hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions. As of 2012. Chinese tourists are the largest group of travellers in the world. Unfortunately, understanding of the needs that these Chinese tourists have is exceptionally poor. What do they want to eat, do or buy? Where do they want to stay, and what places do they want to visit? All these differ radically from the needs of other tourists. In this book, we will take you through what is different and why it is so. In the book, we will also offer ideas on how to easily shift your offering to match what Chinese tourists want. We will also provide plenty of examples on what others have done to attract their business -- since, naturally, many have already invested heavily to do this. So yes, competition for Chinese tourists has undoubtedly begun, but an equally vital investment for winning this fight is understanding. What do you know about their needs?

 

 

INGEMAR FREDRIKSSON has 30+ years experience in top management, business development, profitability development and marketing. He has worked with plenty of SMEs in different industries (including tourism) and also with Fnatic, IKEA, Invest Sweden, Miss Sweden and the Swedish government. He has also been vice chairman of The Swedish Federation of Business Owners. Since a few years back he lives and works in the UAE. All four books by Ingemar Fredriksson, in their original Swedish edition, have featured on top lists together with names like Steve Jobs, Daniel Kahneman, Thomas Piketty, Sun Tzu and even the Fifty shades-series. Search on YouTube for “Ingemar Fredriksson’s books – Bestsellers for 15 years!” for a full video of random list positions over the years.

 

LYU WEN has a degree in Economics from Fudan University in Shanghai, with an extensive finance background. Together, they have the academic background with down-to-earth know-how and experience of the meeting between East and West, and how this can be used in business development.

 

 

Said about the Swedish edition of this book:

 

“This book is basically a huge checklist and a fantastic basis for those who would like to attract Chinese tourists.”

 

Monika Fleming-Glogoza, West Sweden Tourist Board

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ingemar Fredriksson
• Release date: Oct 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9789198573527

Book preview

1. Why should I care?

Everyone is well aware that China has had exceptional economic growth in recent decades and continues to be increasingly important to the world economy. Still, other than businesspeople, students, and delegations, Chinese travellers are relatively new in many countries. This is mainly due to the fact that tourist travel outside of China has long been legally restricted.

Chinese were first permitted to take tourist trips in 1991, and then travel outside Asia only in 1994. Getting a passport was still very difficult at that time. This included the requirement that the destination for the travel had official Approved Destination Status (ADS), that is, government authority approval. If a destination failed to obtain ADS, they were only permitted to accept delegations and business travellers, and they could not market directly to Chinese consumers. The ADS system is still in effect. In February 2003, Germany became the first EU country to be approved for Chinese tourists. Sweden received approval as a destination in September 2004 with many other European countries, including: Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland.

Great Britain received approval as a destination in January 2005, and the first group of 80 Chinese tourists arrived there in July 2005. These were welcomed by the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at a ceremony held at the Tower of London. Tourist industry representatives estimated at that time that Chinese Tourists would bring in 500 million pounds by 2020.

Already by 2013, that number was exceeded, and in 2018 alone they spent 657 million pounds in the UK, which was down from 694 million the previous year¹.

When in 2004, Sweden and many other countries signed ADS agreements with China, the WTO (World Tourism Organization) forecast that China would be the fourth largest outbound tourist nation in 2020 with over 100 million such tourists. As of 2007, many European cities experienced doubledigit percentage increases in total Chinese booked hotel nights. In 2011, this increase was all of 30 percent over 2010, when Europe received 3.8 million Chinese tourists. In 2018 Chinese visitors to Europe exceeded six million according to data released by the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute².

1.1 They have been number 1 since 2012

A UNWTO report published in April 2013, noted that in 2012, China became the top country with regard to spending on foreign travel. In total, Chinese tourists spent 102 billion dollars that year – an increase of 40% over 2011 when spending was 73 billion dollars. In 2005, China was the seventh-largest outbound tourist country, but passed Italy, Japan, France, and Great Britain before 2011, and then Germany and the USA in 2012.

The China Tourist Academy forecasted that over 200 million Chinese would travel abroad in 2020. The Chinese State identified the tourism industry as a vital industry for national economic development and adopted the Outline for National Tourism and Leisure (2013-2020), in February 2013. This document included arguments for paid leave days for all employees and could be used more freely over the year to reduce the travel pressure experience during the two national holidays – for the Chinese New Year, and their National Day of the PRC. While this document refers to National, the UNWTO General Secretary commented that the strategy would surely also have a positive impact on outbound tourism. The Boston Consulting Group estimated that 25 million Chinese would take their first foreign trip each year for the next decade – which translates to 70,000 people daily, all year round.

In 2009, only 56 percent of the Chinese population had annual leave, and of these, only 2 percent travelled abroad. As much as 80 percent of these outbound trips were to neighbouring countries lasting only 0 to 3 days³.

The number of foreign trips by Chinese tourists increased 14.7 percent from 2017 to 149 million in 2018, with total spending amounting to $130 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 13 percent.

1.2 Their buying power is growing fast

The graph below, compiled by Airbus⁴, shows forecast growth in the middle class to 2030. This clearly shows that by far the largest growth will occur in Asia, while they also anticipate decreases in totals in Europe and North America from 2020 to 2030. A look at the shares shows even more exciting developments. That is that the total percentage of the world population who will be able to spend between 10 and 100 dollars per day will increase from 27 percent (1,856 million of 6,900 million) in 2010 to 59 percent (4,884 of 8,300 million) by 2030. Of these 4,884 million people, some 3,228 million will be Asian, corresponding to 66 percent of the total global middle class.

When you compare the buying power of Chinese to that of people in other countries, you should also remember that the nation has a high tolerance for allowing people to earn money on the side⁵. Therefore, looking at official figures may not always give a complete picture of the actual buying power many Chinese have. When in China, you often get the impression that many people are much better off in their daily lives than what public statistics indicate.

Another Boston Consulting Group report from late 2012 estimated that one-fifth of all Chinese will be well-off⁶ in 2020. They expect that at the time, up to 280 million Chinese will have a combined buying power totalling 31 trillion dollars. A third of these affluent people will be children and young in these well-off families, including many in China – which have been nicknamed the sugar generation there. No wonder Goldman Sachs has called Chinese millennials; the single most important demographic on the planet today. In 2017 they were behind growth in the Chinese market of 142 billion Yuan an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year, according to a survey by Bain & Company. Millennials in China are born between 1980 and 2000. They are divided into post-80s (balinghou) and post-90s (jiulinghou), where the latter is claimed to be even more spoiled and demanding than the former. While many Western parents also feel their children are spoiled, it is worth remembering that many of the parents of Chinese millennials grew up during the Great famine (1959–1961), followed by the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘China Wealth Management: Opportunities and Risks to 2022,’ reveals that the number of affluent individuals recorded an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 9.2% between 2014 and 2018, rising from 28.35 million in 2014 to 40.13 million in 2018.

At the November 2012 party congress, then-president Hu Jintao set the target to double GDP and income per capita by 2020. It was the first time income per capita was included in national growth targets for Chine, where previously, only GDP growth was identified. One important reason for this is that the national government wanted to signal that all Chinese must participate in economic growth, which would reduce tensions between different areas. This is related to a governmental shift in focus in their twelfth five-year plan (starting 2011) from export growth to private consumption – which is also benefited by growing buying power. It involved stimulated urbanization, importing consumer products, and tourism to create growth through driving private consumption.

At the Boao Forum for Asia⁷ in April 2013, the then-new Chinese President, Xi Jinping, said that in the next five years China would import goods valued at 10 trillion dollars, invest over-seas for 500 billion dollars and that the number of outbound tourists from China would exceed 400 million.

1.3 Others have already invested

Even though the change in Chinese tourism has occurred in a short period, many other countries and cities have noticed the phenomenon, and are trying to attract their share. The survey, research, and media specialists Skift, who highlight changes in the travel industry, found in 2013 that over 30 countries were working to attract more Chinese tourists. This included European countries like Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Great Britain, Czechia, and Germany. As we point out further in this book, many more countries are investing in attracting more Chinese tourists. To promote their destinations, they are working to facilitate visa applications, attracting delegation trips, and running marketing campaigns.

The British Department for Culture, Media, and Sport⁸ announced in August 2012 a planned investment of eight million pounds for marketing specifically to China. Their stated ambition was to double the number of Chinese tourists by 2015, increase tourism revenues by 500 million pounds, and create more than 14,000 new jobs. This investment is in addition to the 100 million pounds⁹ VisitBritain already had budgeted for a four year period, and also in addition to the largest campaign ever implemented coving 14 cities including Beijing and Shanghai in China. This campaign, named GREAT was originally budgeted at 25 million pounds.

Foto: VisitBritain

The British were possibly encouraged by their successful investments in the 2012 London Olympic Games, where Chinese tourists were found thave spent more than any others. VisitBritain’s long-term goals were to increase the number of Chinese visitors by 233,000, or 156 percent, from the 150,000 who came in 2011 to 382,000 annual visitors by 2020.

Scandinavian initiatives include a collaboration between Gothenburg, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Copenhagen entitles China-via. Then, the promoters of this campaign to increase Chinese tourism in Scandinavia stated in their January 2013 report that this was a must-in, effort for all these countries.

So many have already invested a lot, is not surprising, if you consider the share of employment held by the tourism industry and its contribution to growth. The UNWTO has found that the industry represents nine percent of the world’s GDP, six percent of global trade, and one in eleven jobs.

With this, we have presented only a few examples of how others have invested in Chinese tourists, but the rest of this book will contain more examples of what specific countries, cities, or companies have done to gain a toehold in this massive new business opportunity. The only exception seems to be Taiwan (The Republic of China), which implemented restrictions in 2008 as to the total number of tourists permitted after having opened up for mainland Chinese previously.

1.4 But they spend less!

From this background, you could think it is evident that substantial investment in attracting Chinese tourists to your country, city, or business is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. A survey conducted by the Nordic marketing effort Chinavia, presented in January 2013 found that tourism promotion organisations have a greater interest in Chinese tourists than do industry companies, such as hotels, attractions, restaurants, and stores. The report pointed out the problems this may bring since activities promoting tourism are often co-financed by the industry. That stakeholders have differing views of how interesting the Chinese are to attract is likely rooted in the fact that they approach the target group from entirely different directions. Countries, regions, and cities calculate the number of Chinese tourists and how much they spend as a total or on average. Industry participants see tourists as individuals, so even if the total buying power of all Chinese tourists are high, there remain significant differences in how they allocate their money compared to others. Generally, they spend a relatively small proportion of their budget on flights, hotels, and restaurants, but significantly more on shopping. The latter is primarily for luxury items from hot brands. As reported by Global Blue, Chinese tourist VAT refunds are 60 to 70 percent for luxury items.

The Singapore Tourism Board also published a report covering the share of spending visitors made in various categories in Singapore during the first six months of 2018¹⁰. Worth noting is that the largest category (Sightseeing, Entertainment, and Gaming) is missing due to the commercial sensitivity of the information. These other four showed the following.

This summary covers the ten countries that had the most visitors. The Chinese spent 51 percent on shopping, whereby they were the group for which this was the largest share of their travel budget. On the other hand, they were last in all the other tables. For example, they paid only 6% of their budgets on food and drink, despite plenty of Chinese restaurants in Singapore. Some studies present the share of travel budget allocated to shopping as being between 60 and 70 percent.

A different study run by hotels.com found that Chinese were those who paid the lowest prices for their hotel rooms in over half the respondent countries.

Making money on Chinese tourists is therefore seen as a huge challenge for the tourism industry, not attracting them at all. To do this, you must know so much more about what they want to have and how they want to get it. Therefore, this is not about those who invest most time and money to attract Chinese to their business also make the most. This more involves adapting, and collaboration – or as stated by Charles Darwin:

In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

This is what our book wants to convey in as simple terms as possible: To explain how Chinese tourist function and how you can make money on them. We write with a deep, inner, and possibly naive hope that we can contribute to greater understanding.

1.5 The alternative is unnecessary conflicts

The Opium Wars of the 1800s were the result of the West failing to find something the Chinese wanted to buy. A similar imbalance has arisen between the West and China in recent years. To address domestic opinion expressed by higher numbers of voters who have lost their manufacturing jobs, Western policymakers regularly respond with punitive import duties and other trade barriers for Chinese goods. This while the west is flooded by Chinese consumers’ growing buying power. These are met by an industry that often feels the same frustration as Lord George Macartney experienced when he visited the Chinese imperial court in 1793 to sell Western goods. He was told: Thank you but you have nothing we want to buy.

This frustration leads to the Opium Wars then. Today, it causes Chinese tourists to be poorly treated at times. Or a failure to meet their needs - something as basic as failing to offer food they like.

As shown by a hotel manager in the Maldives, you do not help by becoming angry when they choose to use the hotel room kettle to boil instant noodles. His solution was to remove all the room kettles, and mock his Chinese guests by loudly telling his staff that the international country designation for China, CN, really meant Cup Noodle. He did not achieve higher customer numbers, but rather an enormous social media protest by the Chinese, and a boycott of the hotel as a destination.

The ‘The Economist’ describes the European attitudes, as follows:

The European travel industry uses the sniffy phrase sleep cheap, shop expensive to describe Chinese visitors. Chinese tour operators are notorious for bargaining down travel and hotel costs.

Rather than repeating the errors of history and get angry when you do not understand, providers should take advantage of the unique opportunity presented by the vast volumes of affluent Chinese tourists. The simplest way forward for this is following basic market economics. Understand your customer’s needs and offer to fulfil that need. Simply sell what the customer wants to buy, and not what you want to sell.

1 https://www.visitbritain.org/sites/default/files/vb-corporate/markets/visitbritain_marketprofile_china_2019_0.pdf

2 https://hotelandtourismonline.com/2019/08/27/major-new-report-released-on-chinese-tourism-in-europe/

3 Based on facts reported by the Brookings Institution and Global Insight.

4 Source: https://www.globaldata.com/affluent-population-in-china-to-surpass-56-million-mark-in-2022-says-globaldata/

5 Read more on this in the chapter ‘Politics.’

6 The report defines ‘well-off’ as we use here as ‘Affluent’ describing people with incomes higher than middle class, but lower than the super-rich.

7 An Asian version of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

8 Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

9 Co-financed by several industry stakeholders.

10 https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/dam/stb/documents/statistics-marketing-insights/Quarterly-Tourism-Performance-Report/STB%20Q2%202019_FINAL.pdf

2. Culture and customs

Very much is different in China, so here, we will go through a few considerations to hopefully build a greater understanding of why this is so.

2.1 General Behaviour

The public behaviour of some Chinese does differ significantly from what is seen as common Western behaviour (except for everyone with their mobile phones in hand). This may easily give you the feeling that Chinese see as their own private space what many see as public space. Such as when you walk the streets of Shanghai and meet someone, entirely unabashedly, sauntering around in their pyjamas and slippers. Or when you see someone standing in the street washing their hair.

Other behaviours that differ from most Westerners include spitting on the floor, smoking when and wherever, discarding food scraps and garbage in the street, rolling up pants legs, lifting their shirt to cool off, eating while talking loudly, and haggling over prices (also very loudly). The latter may appear especially peculiar in Western stores where fixed prices are the norm.

One-third of the world’s smokers live in China, and you clearly notice they ignore the law passed in 2011 banning smoking in public places. Consumption also differs significantly from OECD countries, where 27 percent of men and 17 percent of women smoke. In China smokers aged 15 and above in 2018 were 26.6% of the total population.

Photo: CameleonsEye/Shutterstock.com

Combined food and smoking break.

Among men, 50.5% were smokers, but among females, only 2.1% smoked. Numbers for men rise with age, among those aged 45 to 64, all of 63% are smokers. You can easily imagine the sanitary nuisance and conflicts with Chinese tourists that may arise involving tobacco. When travelling in China, you also see men smoking everywhere, even on buses and in stores. A plethora of stories abound about bus passengers who callously beat drivers or other passengers who remind them that smoking is not permitted. You can only hope the high tobacco prices in the West dampens their smoking habit when travelling outside of China. Domestic Chinese cigarettes can be bought for four to ten Yuan per pack, but this should not raise expectations that consumption would, therefore, generally decline. Cigarettes are an important aspect of Chinese culture, and a common courtesy is to offer others one from their pack. If you then respond that you do not smoke, you will likely be met with a surprised expression that seems to say: What is that got to do with it?

Queueing culture is also something you find will vary. Most often, people gather in a large clump in front of the cashier, and those who are pushiest get served. This does not end when you get to the front. The others nearby still keep pushing, and interrupting with questions aimed at the cashier as they take care of you.

Still, care is needed to avoid characterizing these behaviours as typical Chinese. The fact is that many Chinese also experience them as disturbing, so authorities have long worked to improve such general behaviours on a national level. Understanding this kind of public awareness campaign demands some understanding of a Chinese word that is unfortunately very difficult to translate easily. Possibly because it is more a concept than only a word. The word is suzhi (素质), and its complexity can be highlighted by noting that it is translated to 32 different English words. All of these have varying connotations, but the most common translation is quality. The full understanding involves knowing this refers to three different qualities in people: physical, intellectual, and moral. To achieve a higher level in several degrees is something that can be linked to a historical striving toward perfection in the Chinese culture, including in other contexts, such as in religion and martial arts. In this, the physically skilful practitioner is also described as possessing supernatural powers. This link can be why this concept has gained such general acceptance despite having initially had a political use.

Its modern meaning first appeared toward the end of the last century. This was first, concerning implementing the one-child policy¹ when the word was used to convincing people that quality is better than quantity. Though this was in the slogan renkou suzhi (indicating the quality of the population). This was then used to support changes to the school system, which involved moving from yingsh ijiaoyu (education concentrating on passing tests and degrees) to suzhi jiaoyu², which can mostly be translated to mean greater knowledge learned by the individual.

This new meaning began to spread during the 1990s from political, and academic circles to everyday experiences. Newspapers and books described how parents could improve their child’s suzhi. It also began appearing in advertisements where people were told certain products would enhance their suzhi. Another important reason for this concept becoming more generally accepted is likely China’s breakneck urbanization that occurred in the 1908s and 90s when so many people migrated to cities from rural areas. The two groups of Chinese – rural immigrants and urban residents – had never before met each other to such an extent. The latter started to use the concept to denigrate how their recently arrived compatriots behaved and dressed. For example, many Chinese would never dream of spitting on the floor or leaving the food scraps there.

Therefore, a component in the attempt to raise public awareness of behaviour where the state – through their Spiritual Civilisation Steering Committee – issued guidelines on how Chinese tourists should behave when travelling domestically and internationally. The campaign was launched in October 2006 when others than urbanized residents reacted to these odd behaviours of certain Chinese. As more people have had the opportunity to travel abroad, more negative articles in Western media have appeared about Chinese passing through hotel lobbies dressed only in pyjamas or threw chicken bones on restaurant floors. Leaders where anxious about ensuring visitors to the 2008 Summer Olympics had a pleasant experience as possible. Ahead of the campaign, they asked the Internet and received over 30,000 examples of how people behaved uncivilized. Using these responses, several recommendations were issued to travel operators who were required to send to everyone booking a trip. Media also reported on the importance of behaving decently when abroad, where they also showed instances of poor behaviour. One article read: Tourism, and by extension the quality (suzhi) of Chinese tourists, is an issue of branding and symbolizes the quality of both the individual and the nation as a whole.’

Unfortunately, changing the behaviour of several hundred million people does take time, so these media reports of strange behaviour, will likely continue to appear. Whenever they do appear, they seem to gain as much attention with Chinese in general as with many Westerners. The government continues unabated in their striving, so after a Chinese boy inappropriately spread graffiti in Egypt, a new version of the recommendations for how to behave was issued. This time in the form of 128 rhyming sentences that makes you wonder if the party was inspired by hip-hop in the hopes of getting a better response from young people.

China is not alone in taking measures to ensure people behave well. In New Jersey, the town of Wildwood passed an ordinance in 2013 carrying fines for anyone wearing pants that hung low enough to expose underpants. The town mayor justified this claiming that after all, this applied to underclothes. There, being barefoot or bare-chested after 8 p.m. is also prohibited. All to maintain a sense of decorum in the public space hoping to attract more tourists. Though, you could suspect this was appreciated by the more significant portion of adults in the town. Historically, you can compare the Chinese campaign with, say, how the city of Stockholm sent out emissaries to the countryside to teach people how to live in apartments in the early 1900s. You could also ask whether views of Sweden would have differed in countries with cheap alcohol if Swedish tourists had received similar recommendations in the early charter travel days in the 1960s.

The reasons Swedes began travelling more then, was the same as for Chinese now: increased wealth. Spared the devastation of WWII, Sweden experienced a long period of economic growth, with an average annual GDP growth of just under 4%. Historians refer to it as the golden quarter century, lasting from 1948 to 1973 when it was abruptly interrupted by the oil crisis. In practice, this meant a class journey for an entire generation. China is now taking the same journey at a much faster pace; annual GDP has grown an average of nearly 9.39% over the last 30 years. Those who grew up during the golden quarter-century, in Sweden no doubt remember how guides and books teaching proper etiquette, whereas common as cookbooks are today.

The equivalent market is now growing in China, where millions are quickly ascending the ladder to wealth. Increasingly, leading politicians and industrial managers realise that money is not enough to do business and garner respect in international settings. Or as an acquaintance of mine expressed it: It takes time to learn how to cross a parlour floor. The English have the striking expression Manners maketh man. When it comes to China, the equivalent view of proper conduct, as with much else, dates back to Confucius. The problem is that few know how they are expected to behave when interacting with Westerners. This is something a young German couple experienced when visiting the Tsingtao Brewery in Qingdao. The facility tour naturally ended with a glass of its beer, when these two were surrounded by curious Chinese wanting to know how Germans drink beer. They, after all, should be the experts. Mainly, as this brewery, in particular, China’s most famous beer brand, was founded by Germans. Chinese are generally unabashed in their curiosity, though is not always to learn from the West, as some misinterpret it. They are openly curious, so when anything happens on the street, a crowd looking for a spot of free entertainment will quickly form. This includes, for example, personal conflicts – where Westerners generally do not want to get involved – Chinese will gather around, and not infrequently actively join in – arguing or loudly agreeing with one side or the other. As we will see further in the book, Chinese are also not afraid to be forthright. As say, when organizing study tours or courses themed on proper etiquette, they are likely to call these something like: Learn how to behave like a rich/civilised person.

Or, as Sara Jane, who already provides this type of educational experience in Beijing via her Institute Sarita, expressed on an introductory image: How to behave, now that we are rich. On her web-site, she draws parallels to how Princess Diana and the Duchess of Cornwall and other distinguished ladies of Europe, attended schools in Switzerland to learn proper etiquette. Sara Jane now offers the Noveau Riche of China (that is, just about every wealthy Chinese person) the same opportunity:

Institute Sarita’s two most popular courses are Hostess (for married women) and Debutante (for unmarried women). The Hostess course is RMB 100,000 for 12 days, and the Debutante Course is RMB 80,000 for 10 days.

2.2 Politics

The West often portrays China as a one-party dictatorship, but this is not how the country’s political class views its system. Western emphasis is usually on the lack of democracy and freedom of expression while failing to understand why China chose a different solution. It stems from the idea that what is best for the West should also be best for China. We have no intention to dive into this debate here, but instead want to shed light on the relationship between political leaders and the general population.

In China, citizens have quite a lot of freedom to criticise certain issues and individual politicians or officials. No doubt, the regime considers this a necessary release valve, similar to the Evening of the pig, in ancient Egypt, or the Viking habit of binge drinking before making important decisions (with their modern equivalent in office parties). It also creates an effective control system which otherwise would have been difficult to achieve over the mandate of the people, as it is carried out across such a large country. A flexible and practical way to ensure people stand behind the policies being implemented. Some instances certainly show the regime riding rough-shod when pushing through infrastructure projects or similar, but other examples