Winter has come and gone: Fosun Tourism to expand business, add urban resort hotels amid surge in Chinese tourist traffic
- Fosun Tourism, a subsidiary of Fosun International which specialises in leisure and holiday tourism businesses, expects a sustained boom in Chinese tourism in the second and third quarter, after business revenues in January and February struck record highs
- Fosun plans expansions in resort projects in China’s tier-1 and tier-2 cities, and introduce services that combine travel with holiday
Fosun Tourism Group plans to expand its business operations globally and run more resort hotels in China, amid signs of improvements in the tourism industry and with Chinese citizens planning more holiday trips, the company’s chairman said.
Xu Xiaoliang, chairman of Fosun Tourism Group and co-CEO of Fosun International, heralded a turnaround for the industry which has suffered because of travel and other restrictions imposed during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have gone through the coldest winter of the tourism sector in the past two years, and now we will embrace the best of times,” Xu told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview, quashing speculation that its parent company will sell parts of its tourism unit to pay off debts.
Fosun Tourism, a subsidiary of Fosun International which specialises in leisure and holiday tourism businesses, will serve more Chinese tourists who plan overseas travel in the second and third quarter, after business revenue in January and February struck record highs. The company also plans to expand its global business operations over the next three years.
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“We have seen a fast and robust rebound in demand since the beginning of this year,” Xu said, highlighting the recovery in the company’s revenue from its hotel business to the pre-pandemic levels in the first two months of 2023. This follows China’s U-turn in its Covid-19 policy as it removed restrictions and resumed many international flights.
