Fear for safety outside China and the region continues to drive uncertainty when booking trips, slowing a global travel recovery
(Bloomberg) — On the eve of China’s May Labor Day holiday week, more than half of Chinese travelers say they haven’t set plans to go abroad this year, with 31% saying no to international travel altogether, according to a survey published on Wednesday 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 $253 billion to the global economy in 2019. There’s ongoing reticence and negligible improvement from early 2023, just prior to the end of the country’s Covid Zero policies, when 40% of Chinese travelers said they had no plans to travel overseas despite easing restrictions.
The survey by marketing solutions firm Dragon Trail International was conducted April 4–7, ahead of China’s peak five-day May holiday week and the summer season, and queried 1,012 mainland Chinese travelers 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% 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.
“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% 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 travelers heading overseas for the May holidays, Macau and Jakarta rank as the top Asian destinations in terms of how much they’ve recovered from 2019, while Cairo and Dubai topped the list of international bookings, according to ForwardKeys’ booking data also released Wednesday.
Despite lingering uncertainty around overseas travel plans in 2023, the Chinese traveler’s desire to explore the world hasn’t waned and neither has the interest in group tours. Of those respondents who say they’re potentially or definitely traveling abroad this year, close to 75% 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 Plc this week resumed daily direct flights to Shanghai from London for the first time in two years.
Chinese travel agencies are authorized to sell outbound group tour packages to 60 destinations, although that list continues to exclude the US. Individual Chinese travelers can still book their own trips to the US and other destinations, granted they can get a visa.
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