China’s post-Covid-19 travel industry sees green shoots with tourists embracing short trips, luxury stays in lessons for global operators

Name: China prepares to open Hainan Ocean Flower Island, the world's largest man-made tourist isle
Uploaded: 2020-09-06T02:00:21.000Z
Duration: 1 min 15 s
Description: China prepares to open Hainan Ocean Flower Island, the world's largest man-made tourist isle

As the psychological effect of pandemic still lingers, tourists are keeping travel to a minimum and choosing destinations around big cities

High-income travellers flocked to domestic luxury resorts like Atlantis Sanya in Hainan in August, pushing up the occupancy and room rates

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Chinese tourists flocked to the Atlantis Sanya resort in Hainan province in August as they were unable to travel overseas because of travel restrictions. Photo: Reuters

Yujing Liu

Published: 10:00am, 6 Sep 2020Updated: 10:55pm, 6 Sep 2020

In China’s post-Covid-19 tourism market, short-distance travelling and luxury holidays are leading the rebound, while tour groups and business trips are declining, according to industry players.

As the country’s US$1 trillion tourism industry slowly gets back on its feet after taking a massive hit from the coronavirus outbreak, the shape of its recovery could provide lessons for the rest of the world still struggling with the pandemic.

“The coronavirus will have a profound and long-standing effect on the global tourism industry,” said Qian Jiannong, chairman and chief executive of Fosun Tourism, in an recent interview with the South China Morning Post. “Different segments and regions in the market will diverge in their future performance, and this will lead to great structural opportunities.”

More than half of China’s tourism firms said their incomes plunged by 75 per cent in the first half of 2020 from a year earlier year, according to a survey of 1,154 respondents carried out by tourism industry consultancy Horwath HTL in July. Hong Kong-listed Fosun Tourism, which owns the French holiday resort chain Club Med, reported a 50 per cent decline in revenue to 4.5 billion yuan (US$658 million) last week.

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China prepares to open Hainan Ocean Flower Island, the world's largest man-made tourist isle

Authorities in China have gradually relaxed domestic travel restrictions over the past few months, having brought the virus largely under control. In late July, the country’s tourism regulator allowed residents to join tour groups outside their home provinces, and lifted the cap on tourist attractions’ carrying capacity to 50 per cent from 30 per cent of their normal level.

Tourists so far have embraced destinations close to their homes to keep travel to a minimum, according to Jiang Hong, chairman of China Travel International Investment Hong Kong, which owns theme parks, hotels and tourist attractions across China and Hong Kong.