China’s first summer in four years without harsh COVID restrictions was meant to create a travel boom for its wilting economy. It hasn’t turned out that way.
Peak summer in China — the first in four years without harsh COVID restrictions. Tickets for attractions like the Forbidden City in Beijing are selling out in minutes. Streets are crowded and subway stations are even more packed than usual. Foreign tourists, however, are few.remains — images of deserted streets and barricaded buildings are hardly fodder for holiday brochures and tourism campaigns.
The main factor putting Chinese travellers off overseas trips is concern about safety in other countries, where they are fearful of getting an unfriendly reception, according to an April survey by Dragon Tail International. Also cited in polls by the company: health concerns, difficulty in getting documents such as visas, and the high cost. In the April survey, 58 per cent of respondents said they either definitely wouldn’t leave mainland China in 2023 or were unsure about going abroad.
A sense of distrust and caution developed over the pandemic as relations between China and other countries soured.The concerns Chinese tourists have about travelling overseas are reflected the other way, for visitors coming into the country. A sense of distrust and caution developed over the pandemic as relations between China and other countries soured.
Air travel essentially dried up during COVID, which emerged in China in early 2020 and resulted in the world’s strictest border controls. It takes time to rebuild flight capacity from such unprecedented lows. Barbara Kosmun, a Slovenia-based filmmaker, travelled to China this summer to meet friends and family working there. Kosmun last visited in 2019 and while she has shopped using WeChat Pay before so the setup wasn’t totally alien, it still proved difficult.China’s digital payment system “seems more difficult than before COVID,” she said.
“This WeChat thing makes me feel unwelcome,” Kosmun said. “China is the most convenient country in the world, provided you speak Mandarin, you have the right apps and you have a Chinese card.”
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