Destinations knownWhy are tourists not returning to mainland China? Experts cite a host of reasons but it’s anyone’s guess as to when ‘normality’ will resume
- Mainland China’s tourism sector saw a 70 per cent drop in international travellers in the first half of this year compared with pre-Covid levels
- Cross-border travel could get back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024 and then grow, the World Travel and Tourism Council says - but, really, who can tell?
Is it just us, or does the post-pandemic world feel like a different place to the pre-pandemic world?
Perhaps nowhere more so than in mainland China, where the anticipated return to tourism business as usual has simply not materialised.
Immigration data shows that mainland China’s tourism sector saw a 70 per cent drop in international travellers in the first half of this year compared with pre-Covid levels, from close to 31 million who entered and exited the country in the same period in 2019 to around 8.44 million.
That can be partially explained by the fact that some Covid-19 restrictions remained earlier in the year, but despite almost all now having been dropped, much of the world doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get back to the Great Wall, the Bund or Tiger Leaping Gorge.
Many articles have been written theorising as to why that may be.