Destinations known | China’s Hainan is benefiting from a domestic tourism boom, but will its moment in the sun last?
- The country’s southernmost province has been touted as an upcoming international destination, despite attracting only a few arrivals from overseas
- Coronavirus-related restrictions have caused an influx of Chinese tourists keen to spend in duty-free stores
Not that Hainan has been lacking in visitors. According to Chinese tabloid the Global Times, “More than 83 million tourists from home and abroad visited southern China’s tropical island province of Hainan in 2019, up nine per cent year on year.” Tourism revenue also increased, rising 11 per cent to 105 billion yuan (US$16.2 billion), although noticeably absent from the article was the breakdown of domestic and foreign visitors. In 2018, non-Chinese visitors to the island had accounted for just 1.2 per cent of its 76 million arrivals.
But then, of course, the pandemic hit. From midnight on March 28, 2020, China closed its borders to foreign nationals, and entry bans remain in place for all but those with residence permits.
However, unlike all those desirable overseas destinations Hainan was designed to emulate – Indonesia’s Bali or Phuket, in Thailand, for example – the “Hawaii of China”, as it is generously called on occasion, has been doing just fine, thank you. Its appeal to domestic tourists has only grown as the world beyond China’s borders continues to be inaccessible.
“Few Chinese destinations benefited as directly from the collapse of outbound tourism in 2020 as Hainan,” reports online platform Jing Culture and Commerce. “As domestic tourism gathered momentum in the latter months of the year, the subtropical island’s comfortable environment and duty-free shopping captured tourists who, in recent years, have sought out regional destinations.”