China tourists remain wary of travelling overseas
ON THE eve of China’s May Labour Day holiday week, more than half of Chinese travellers say they have not set plans to go abroad this year, with 31 per cent saying no to international travel altogether, found a survey published on Wednesday (Apr 26) and shared exclusively with Bloomberg.
The return of Chinese tourists abroad is considered essential to the rebound of global tourism. Pre-pandemic, China was the world’s largest source of outbound tourists, contributing US$253 billion to the global economy in 2019.
There is ongoing reticence and negligible improvement from early 2023, just prior to the end of the country’s zero-Covid policies, when 40 per cent of Chinese travellers said they had no plans to travel overseas despite easing restrictions.
The survey by marketing solutions firm Dragon Trail International was conducted Apr 4 to 7, ahead of China’s peak five-day May holiday week and summer, and queried 1,012 mainland Chinese travellers in 49 cities.
Fear about safety outside of China is now the top factor in considering a trip, overtaking financial concerns and having the free time to travel.
Just 10 per cent of Chinese respondents say they have outbound trips booked for 2023, although about half of those respondents who were undecided hope to book an international trip before the end of the year.
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“We don’t need this survey to tell us that the recovery of the Chinese outbound tourism market has not yet met the expectations of many destinations,” says Sienna Parulis-Cook, director of marketing and communications at Dragon Trail.
Dragon Trail’s results align with the slow rebound of international passenger volumes from China, at just 12.4 per cent of 2019 levels in the first quarter of 2023.
A full recovery in air travel out of China is likely to take another year, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines has projected.
For Chinese travellers heading overseas for the May holidays, Macau and Jakarta rank as the top Asian destinations in terms of how much they have recovered from 2019, while Cairo and Dubai topped the list of international bookings, showed booking data from ForwardKeys also released Wednesday.
Despite lingering uncertainty around overseas travel plans in 2023, the Chinese traveller’s desire to explore the world has not waned, and neither has the interest in group tours.
Of those respondents who say they are potentially or definitely travelling abroad this year, close to 75 per cent said they would choose an Asian destination in 2023, followed by Europe, and nearly two-thirds say they prefer booking all-inclusive packages.
International airlines are reconnecting to the country – among them, British Airways this week resumed daily direct flights to Shanghai from London for the first time in two years.
Chinese travel agencies are authorised to sell outbound group tour packages to 60 destinations, although that list continues to exclude the US.
Individual Chinese travellers can still book their own trips to the US and other destinations, granted they can obtain a visa. BLOOMBERG
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