Destinations known | When will Chinese tourists deem international travel safe again? Foreign destinations gearing up for their imminent return may be disappointed
- Sentiment towards foreign travel still appears lukewarm in China, but that hasn’t stopped some industry officials from predicting a hasty rebound
- One projection that states it will take another five years for Chinese outbound travel to reach around 2019 levels may be closer to the mark
What do Hong Kong, Thailand and Russia have in common besides political dissent that has recently manifested in protest movements?
Answer: mainland China was the largest source for tourism arrivals for each of them in 2019.
The three destinations are far from being alone in having recorded considerable numbers of Chinese tourists crossing their borders before the coronavirus all but closed them, though, and they are not the only ones wondering when – perhaps even whether – travellers from the Middle Kingdom will return.
According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the nation’s tourists made 169.21 million outbound trips in 2019. And although more than 100 million of those jaunts were to Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, that still leaves many millions for other destinations across the globe.
If China’s domestic tourism boom is anything to go by, the outlook is rosy for economies used to being propped up by an influx of its citizens. Chinese travellers made around 230 million trips during the recent Labour Day public holiday, which ran from May 1 to 5, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, with bookings on online travel agent Trip.com topping pre-pandemic levels for the same period of the year. It seems safe to assume that the Chinese appetite for travel remains insatiable.