The world's second-largest economy is spluttering. China's been facing a slew of headwinds this year, such as a depressed housing market, rocketing youth unemployment, and widespread deflation fears. China also has another problem. Despite reopening to the world after the pandemic earlier this year, it seems foreign visitors are not yet returning.
Just 52,000 people arrived on visits organized by travel agents in the first quarter of the year, the most recent period for which figures are available,The World Tourism Alliance, a Chinese tourism research outfit, said in athat the country's tourism sector was in a state of"distress and depression" following China's slow reopening after the pandemic.
For almost three years, the country was all but closed to business travelers, tourists, and even residents' families as part of the stringent"zero-Covid" policy that was not abandoned until March.In late June theto"reconsider travel to Mainland China due to the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions."
"The number of visitors from Europe, America, Japan and Korea are all dropping, substantially," said Xiao Qianhui, a director of the China Tourism Association, in May. China is far less dependent on tourism than other nations in the region industry such as Thailand and Vietnam, and has seen a 90% rebound in its tourism outflows to other countries, Bloomberg reported. Beijing so far has stopped short of making any interventions despite pressure to stimulate a recovery in manufacturing and services to increase export volumes. Subscribe to push notifications