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The country has been spared exit restrictions for its citizens, but once-popular destinations are still waiting for the flood of tourists to arrive.
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By Ceylan Yeginsu and Patrick Scott
When the first Chinese tourists landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport this month, they were greeted like celebrities with welcome banners, flowers, gifts and a crowd of journalists and photographers.
It’s the moment hotels, airlines, tour operators, and government officials had been waiting for a long time: China’s borders will reopen after nearly 3 years of pandemic restrictions that cut off the global flow of Chinese travelers, once the world’s largest source of excursions. gain. .
“It’s very exciting to stop again in beautiful warm places,” said Hua Liu, 34, a graphic designer from Shanghai who was one of the first female climbers in Thailand, where she took a two-week beach vacation later this month as part of a Lunar New Year trip. “I’m going to make up for lost time,” he said in a telephone interview. for me and my family. “
Before the coronavirus pandemic crippled overseas in 2020, China sent more visitors abroad than any other market, with some 150 million Chinese tourists spending $277 billion overseas in 2018, according to a study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the Chinese Academy of Tourism. That exit was halted in 2020 and last year, even as countries around the world eased restrictions, China maintained an exit ban for its citizens as part of its “zero Covid” policy.
But on Jan. 8, the Chinese government opened its borders, allowing foreigners and Chinese citizens to enter the world. On Jan. 26 and 5, with a 59% increase in foreign flight bookings over the same period, according to Chinese online firm Ctrip.
But while there has been a surge in tourism to nearby destinations, adding Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore, there are still more remote destinations waiting. In addition to higher levels of Covid cases in China, Chinese travelers face long delays in obtaining passports and visas, high costs of overseas flights, and lack of capacity, as many airlines have halted flights due to China’s long lockdown. of those that will be in 2019, according to VisitBritain, the official tourist office. The first scheduled direct flight between China and Switzerland on January 26 was canceled due to lack of passengers.
Before the pandemic, buses stocked with up to 700 Chinese tourists thronged Maetaeng Elephant Park in Thailand’s low-lying hills, about an hour north of Chiang Mai, every day.
Borprit Chailert, the park’s director, anticipates his return, but so far, only about 40 Chinese tourists have turned up, he said.
When they arrive, renting elephants from nearby villagers to their herd of 76 won’t be difficult, Men said. But it’s hard to know when to hire more staff and where to locate them, as many left the tourist region and replaced their jobs when tourism stopped, he said.
“If we need to rent to another hundred people today, we can’t do it because we’re not sure,” he said. “I don’t know, in the next two months the Chinese government will say, ‘We’re ready to border again. »
Since its economy relies heavily on tourism, Thailand has lost tens of billions of dollars in spending through Chinese tourists over the past 3 years. The Chiang Mai Tourism Authority estimates the city, known for its amazing Buddhist temples and its heavy reliance on tourism. , will welcome about 600,000 Chinese visitors this year who will spend about $230 million, a portion of the 2019 total.
The actual numbers may not start until the last quarter, say others in the Thai travel industry. it does not allow tour operators to restart operations until Feb. 6, and only as part of a pilot program with about two dozen countries, including Thailand. For now, only independent Chinese trekkers who can afford the ticket value of the plane travel.
But not everyone is willing to welcome organizational trips again. Even before Covid, operators in Thailand and China have noticed a shift in the trend of the organization and a shift towards more tech-savvy Chinese, equipped with booking apps and enjoying making trips on their own.
Over the past decade, as the total number of Chinese tourists increased, visits by the organizations declined amid the crackdown on so-called zero-dollar economic tours to Phuket, the 40-mile-long island off the west coast of the Thai peninsula. Often illegal operations to avoid taxes, tours were controlled by Chinese investors who owned buses, hotels, restaurants, spas and gift shops, diverting tourist spending from locals. They were known to pressure consumers to buy expensive souvenirs at the retail stores they controlled.
“I don’t think we have any more giant tour groups,” said Nantida Atiset, a hotel owner in Phuket and vice president of the Phuket Tourism Association. “I think they will come back, of course. It’s just a matter of how much they’re going to come back.
In London, a popular destination for Chinese travelers, more than 300,000 people visited Chinatown last week for the first Lunar New Year parade since the coronavirus, but few Chinese tourists were present.
Feng Yang, manager of Shanghai Family, a Chinese restaurant in central London, said he did not expect any Chinese travelers during the Lunar New Year period, but hoped to return in a few months. the coronavirus,” M. Yang, adding that his company probably wouldn’t suffer because about 85% of its consumers are Chinese academics from nearby universities, who won’t be returning to China right now. vacation.
The slow expansion can be attributed to a combination of factors. “There are a lot of flights, they will tend to be more expensive and other people will want a visa to come,” said Patricia Yates, chief executive of VisitBritain, adding that the return of Chinese travellers to Britain would be “slow”. Round-trip flights to London from China charge around $1,300 lately and Yates expects seats on flights from China to Britain to succeed at just 30% of capacity from 2019 through June. “It’s actually mandatory to take other people to planes,” he said.
Before the pandemic, China was Australia’s largest guest market in terms of spending. The country welcomed 1. 4 million Chinese guests in 2019, who spent $12. 4 billion.
Chinese passengers have begun to return for stopovers with friends and family, but tour operators do not expect an influx of recreational passengers for several months because flights are expensive and Australia is not on China’s approved list of destinations for the organization. . Australia is also asking for coronavirus tests for Chinese hikers. This month, round-trip flights between China and Australia cost between $1,800 and $3,000. Before the pandemic, Chinese hikers were known to be willing to spend money, said James Shen, owner of Odyssey Travel in Melbourne. the ones who say, ‘I don’t need to take a boat, I need to take a helicopter,'” he said, ‘I need to take this, not the boat, because I might get seasick. ‘”
While many tour operators eagerly await their return, some worry that the industry won’t be able to cope with a new influx of hikers.
“The industry disappeared for two years; it will be very difficult for him to recover,” said Rick Liu, owner of TanTan Holiday in Melbourne. He added, and rehiring them can be tricky.
“I’m glad we have more tourists, but I’m also a little worried if we’re going to accommodate them properly, provide them with a sufficient quality service,” he added. “We lack a little bit of training. “
Yan Zhuang has contributed reporting from Melbourne, Australia, and Derrick Bryson Taylor from London.
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