China’s decimated US$1.5 trillion tourism industry buckles under coronavirus pressure with no end in sight

Name: China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels
Uploaded: 2022-02-03T12:30:17.000Z
Duration: 3 min 8 s
Description: China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels

Tourism in China recovered slightly last year, but was still only around 50 per cent of the levels seen in the pre-coronavirus era in 2019

Travel agencies are closing and airlines are suffering huge losses as virus outbreaks and travel bans decimate the industry

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Tourists in China took 3.25 billion trips last year, this was up 12.8 per cent from 2020, but only 54 per cent of the level seen in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Photo: AP

Luna Sun

Published: 8:30pm, 3 Feb 2022Updated: 9:08am, 4 Feb 2022

Two years of being buffeted by the coronavirus has brought palpable hardships to tourism in China. Hardly anyone can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, and many are hanging by a thin thread of dogged determination.

When the coronavirus broke out early 2020 and brought tourism to a standstill, the historic Venice-like town of Wuzhen had to make the difficult decision to close its door just before the peak Lunar New Year season.

Since then, like many working in the tourism industry, Wuzhen Tourism president Chen Xianghong had hoped many times that the worst had passed.

But temporary closures kept coming, with visitor numbers falling due to cross-provincial travel restrictions, sending revenue plummeting and forcing people out of the industry.

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China’s Omicron outbreaks dampening Lunar New Year travels

Tourists in China took 3.25 billion trips last year, this was up 12.8 per cent from 2020, but only 54 per cent of the level seen in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Total tourism spending also rose 31 per cent last year from 2020 to 2.92 trillion yuan (US$459 billion), but this was again only half of the level of expenditure seen in 2019, the government data showed.