"Chinese Tourists Greatly Decrease Amid Fears of Being Detained as Spies for Going to Wrong Places"

Number of Tourists Visiting China Remains at 30% of Pre-COVID Levels
Deteriorating International Relations Impact Sharp Decline in Tourists
Loss of Trust and Reduced Flights Also Cited as Causes

The number of tourists visiting China has sharply declined due to the prolonged impact of COVID-19. Since reopening its borders in January and introducing a visa-free transit policy to encourage tourism, China has seen little effect from these measures.

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Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 3rd, about 8.44 million foreign travelers visited China in the first half of the year. This represents approximately a 70% decrease compared to 31 million tourists in the first half of 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19.

SCMP attributed these poor figures to China accumulating a negative image amid geopolitical tensions and losing business trust during the ongoing pandemic.

Brett Mitchell, Managing Director of Australian travel agency Intrepid Travel, stated that the company’s bookings for trips to China this year have decreased by 90% compared to pre-COVID levels.

The sharp decline in tourists appears to be influenced by the deterioration of relations between Australia and China, after Australia pointed to China as the origin of COVID-19 and China responded with retaliatory measures.

Amid this situation, when an Australian citizen working as a news anchor in China was detained following the expanded enforcement of China’s anti-espionage law, the Australian government issued warnings to travelers visiting China.

Scott Moskowitz, Senior Analyst at Morning Consult, a U.S.-based public opinion research firm headquartered in New York, pointed out that "rising tensions between China and the West are a major reason why travelers are staying away from China."

In June, the U.S. Department of State advised reconsidering travel to China, stating that "U.S. citizens traveling or residing in China may be detained without information on criminal charges."

Additionally, the drastic reduction in flights between China and the U.S.?from over 300 weekly flights before the pandemic to just 12 currently?has also contributed to the decline in tourists.

Meanwhile, Liu Xiangyan, a researcher at the China Tourism Academy under the China National Tourism Administration, suggested that travelers may have stopped visiting China due to other Asian countries reopening their tourism industries earlier.

According to U.S. travel booking platform Expedia, the most booked East Asian and Southeast Asian destinations in the second quarter were Tokyo and Singapore. Both regions reopened their borders in October 2022 and April 2022, respectively, attracting tourists.

Researcher Liu Xiangyan predicted that it will take more time for China’s travel industry to resume operations, estimating that "it will take another three years for the number of overseas travelers to recover to pre-pandemic levels."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.