The Chinese tourists everyone expected stayed in China

27-07-23

It stayed in China.

That was the question on the minds of many in the travel industry following the surprise announcement of China's reopening in the final days of 2022.

Many assumed that a torrent of travellers would queue up to venture out of China after three years of harsh pandemic lock-in policies.    

However, many residents stayed at home, either because they wanted to or because it was too difficult and costly to leave the country.

According to Wolfgang Georg Arlt, founder and executive director of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, the lack of affordable flights and long waiting times for overseas travel visas have slowed the recovery of Chinese outbound tourism.

Chinese domestic airline capacity has fully recovered, but international flight capacity remains less than half of pre-pandemic levels, with almost 5 million fewer seats, according to Skift Research's "State of Travel 2023" report released last week.

Asia-Pacific was expected to be the main beneficiary of China's border reopening. However, the number of Chinese visitors to Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines fell by at least 60% in the month of May compared to the same period in 2019, according to Reuters.

Now, Chinese travellers may be looking to venture beyond the region. According to a June survey by research intelligence firm Morning Consult, Chinese interest in visiting Europe, Central America and Antarctica has increased, with plans to visit the Middle East and North Africa, specifically Egypt, increasing the most.

However, according to the survey, summarised in a report published by Morning Consult in July, plans to travel elsewhere, particularly to the United States, have declined.

Travel spending has also been disappointing this year. Record unemployment among Chinese youth is probably not helping, as Millennials and Generation Z from other countries led international travel bookings.