In a survey last yr, Chinese travelers said that they were most concerned about visiting Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
But that is not where they are going — a minimum of not yet.
Flight restrictions, visa issues and entrance rules aimed only at them are complicating matters for Chinese residents who’re able to travel abroad.
Chinese travelers favored Southeast Asia for trips through the Lunar Recent Yr holidays, which led to early February, in keeping with Trip.com Group’s Chinese language booking website, Ctrip.
Travel bookings by Chinese residents outside of the mainland grew by 640% from last yr’s holiday period — and Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai, Manila and Bali were the highest destinations, in keeping with Ctrip’s data.
Overseas hotel bookings by mainland Chinese travelers quadrupled from last yr too, Ctrip said. Yet one place stood out — Bangkok, where “hotels over the vacation increased by greater than 33 times,” said Ctrip.
Top spot for tour groups
Thailand is the also the highest alternative for Chinese tour groups for now, said Thomas Lee, Trip.com Group’s senior director of international business operations.
Ctrip’s first group tour left on Feb. 7, with travelers sure for Bangkok and the nearby beach town of Pattaya, said Lee.
The second-most popular spot for group tours is Maldives, and after that, Egypt, he said.
China resumed group tours organized by travel agencies on Feb. 6. Tours to twenty countries are allowed, including Southeast Asian nations like Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Laos, in addition to United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Hungary, Cuba and Russia.
Group tours to Japan, South Korea and Vietnam usually are not permitted yet.
Why Thailand is popular
A significant reason Chinese tourists are selecting to go to Thailand is that it is easy for them to get in, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on “Squawk Box Asia” Monday.
“At the tip of the day, we were in a position to open up our country with very minimum restrictions,” he said.
He said Thailand has tried “all possible ways to be sure that that our Chinese tourists, in addition to tourists from all around the world, will give you the chance to come back to our country to spend their holidays.”
The day after China relaxed its borders in early January, Thailand announced that every one incoming visitors have to be vaccinated to enter.
But inside days, Thai authorities abandoned the rule, amid rising anger from China toward countries imposing recent rules on Chinese residents.
Charnvirakul said Thailand’s policy U-turn was related to science, not fears about upsetting Chinese travelers, adding that “greater than 75% of our people have [Covid] antibodies each from vaccinations and from being infected.”
He said of the 30 million tourists Thailand is expecting this yr, 12 million to fifteen million may come from China.
“Chinese tourists have been very vital for our tourism industry,” Charnvirakul said.
The Chinese aren’t the one ones selecting Thailand as a vacation destination.
Russia was Thailand’s seventh-largest tourism market in 2019, but in November 2022, Russian visitors were third by way of tourism arrivals, after travelers from Malaysia and India, in keeping with Reuters. In late 2022, one in 4 visitors to Phuket were Russian, said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, in keeping with a Reuters article.
Russians saw their tourism options minimized in 2022, when many countries stopped flying out and in of Russia within the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Top concerns
“At present, top concern for patrons are issues with visas,” said Trip.com Group’s Lee.
Chinese travelers have been blocked from obtaining visas to places like South Korea and Japan, after each countries stopped processing them over concerns about China’s recent Covid-19 surge. South Korea announced last week it will resume issuing short-term visas to Chinese travelers, in keeping with Reuters.
In different places, Chinese residents face long waits to acquire visas due to high demand. Before the pandemic, visa applications to enter the European Union were processed in a matter of days, but now applicants are facing waiting times of as much as two months, in keeping with the web site SchengenVisaInfo.com.
Visas aside, Chinese travelers are also frightened about getting sick, said Lee.
That is why group tours are mainly being booked by “Post-90s and Post-80s” travelers, he said, referring to Chinese generational terms for those born through the Nineties and Nineteen Eighties, respectively.
Price could also be no problem
Rising travel prices could also be of less concern for some Chinese travelers.
A report published by Morgan Stanley on Feb. 7 shows a growing demand for high-end and luxury hotels amongst Chinese consumers.
Interest in luxury hotels jumped from 18% to 34% from 2022 to 2023, while “mentions of budget hotels and mid-range hotels fell universally,” in keeping with the report.
More travelers expect their top travel expense to be hotel accommodations too, up from 17% in 2017 to twenty% in 2023.
Travelers can have to be willing to open their wallets, even in places like Thailand, which has long been popular with backpackers and budget travelers.
Average hotel booking prices in Bangkok in late January jumped by around 70%, in keeping with Ctrip.
