The Chinese government celebrated the heavy travel and tourist season during China’s Labor Day holiday season, which lasted from May 1 to May 5, as a sign that the struggling economy is starting to recover.
Foreign tourists have lagged far behind domestic travel, suggesting China has a long way to go to fully recover from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.
With the usual caveat that data from the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party regime is implicitly unreliable, the BBC said: found Labor Day travel numbers released by the Department of Transportation are “staggering.” Domestic travelers took 295 million trips, an increase of 28% compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic.
“Demand for domestic travel is extremely strong, with hotel searches up 67% and flight numbers up 80% year-on-year,” said Schubert Lu, CEO of Trip.com. Ta. Chinese tourist attraction vendors have said anecdotally that business looks set to return to pre-pandemic levels by Labor Day 2024.
Foreign passengers in protective gear prepare for a flight to China at Manila International Airport in the Philippines, Jan. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Despite this, the number of foreign tourists is still extremely low. China only received 35 million foreign tourists last year, compared to 98 million before the pandemic, and of course many of them were business travelers and students rather than tourists.
The number of round-trip flights between the U.S. and China is less than a fifth of what it was in 2019, in part because U.S. airlines and their unions have accused China’s national carrier of “unfair competition.” This is because they are seeking protection from.
And despite a surge in holiday travelers this year, per capita domestic tourism spending remained very low. Tourism consultant Peng Han acknowledged that this is probably a sign that Chinese tourists are still nervous about the economy and are therefore “frugal” and looking for “affordable options”.
The BBC says that on top of the pandemic hangover, foreign travelers are very nervous about visiting China today because they don’t support the genocidal dictatorship and fear being taken hostage by the state. He pointed out that there was. Both the United States and Australia have issued travel advisories warning of “arbitrary detention” and “strict enforcement of local laws,” particularly the draconian national security law that China imposed on once free-spirited Hong Kong in 2020. I put it out.
Another problem is that China’s brand of high-tech totalitarianism is extremely unfriendly to foreign tourists. Chinese people are accustomed to using a number of smartphone apps to arrange travel and pay for purchases, but many of these apps are only available in Chinese, and many foreign visitors have difficulty using them, even if the characters are Even if you can read it, it’s natural to feel anxious about loading Chinese national spyware onto your phone. language.
A growing number of Chinese merchants no longer accept cash. In some cases, AliPay and WeChat are the only payment methods for travel and accommodation, but not all foreign travelers want to use these two platforms.
Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes are blocking access to the apps that international travelers are accustomed to using, and even if those apps work, Western banks and credit institutions can potentially defraud transactions originating from China. It may be considered to be a target.
People watch a video featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum in Beijing, March 3, 2024 (Greg Baker/AFP)
online travel agency called china highlights According to a survey conducted by China, only 68% of foreign travelers were able to “successfully” use mobile payment services in China, and about half of the rejections were by credit card companies and banks in their home country. China Highlights offers extensive instructions for tourists to China, including his recommendation to use AliPay, which is relatively easy to partner with and friendly to foreign banks.
The Chinese government is trying to attract foreign tourists by expanding visa-free travel from a growing number of European countries. This seems to have had some effect, but not enough to outweigh the other factors that make traveling abroad a chore.
“In order to attract more foreign tourists, Chinese companies must respond to the needs of domestic and foreign tourists.While transitioning to a cashless society is desirable, it will exacerbate the digital divide between Chinese citizens. “We shouldn’t do that or turn away tourists from overseas,” East Asia Forum said. advised During April.
of South China Morning Post (SCMP) I got it. In March, visitors from the UK, US, Canada and Japan still had to pay fees of up to $185, make multiple consular visits and go through lengthy and expensive procedures to secure a visa. It was announced that it would not.
“Payment issues, visa issues, those are long-standing issues. Until then, I don’t think the tourism situation will change. [those barriers] It’s fully open,” said University of Tasmania Professor of Asian Studies James Chin. SCMP.
Voice of America News (VOA) I got it. Despite China’s claims of openness and welcoming foreign tourists, the experience of Chinese customs officials has become increasingly tense, according to a January announcement.
“One difference is that today’s China [tacitly implies] All foreigners, including all foreign Chinese, are spies,” a Chinese-American resident in Texas told VOA, referring to the heavy-handed “anti-espionage law” that China imposed in July.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), warned that “the implementation of the anti-espionage law will encourage Chinese citizens to report to the government anyone they believe resembles the FBI.”
