Inbound tourism from Southeast Asia to China in 2024 is now beating pre-pandemic figures, booking platform Klook Travel Technology has said, and overall tourist numbers could be fully recovered by 2025. If those predictions come true, it would represent a colossal gain for a country which in 2023 was at just 56% of 2019’s foreign arrivals.
Speaking at the UBS Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, Klook Travel Technology CEO Ethan Lin said the boost in arrivals was being driven by Chinese schemes easing visa requirements. More relaxed visa rules for Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand had made a significant difference, Lin said, because people “don’t have that many places they can go that are visa-free” and therefore “China has now become one of the major places that they really travel to.”
Another facilitating factor is the opening up of China’s cashless payment systems that in the past have required Chinese bank accounts and payment apps and have created friction for outsiders. Authorities have been working to make the system more workable for incoming visitors and have gone as far as warning accommodation providers not to reject overseas guests.
Domestic tourism in China has seen a huge growth in popularity too. A May survey of high income families by consultants Oliver Wyman found only 14% planning to holiday abroad this year, citing the rich range of Chinese travel choices available and the cost of overseas vacations as their main reasons. This data seems to be corroborated by Trip.com figures showing bookings for rural Chinese destinations have increased nearly three-fold since the pandemic and domestic flight bookings rose 30% in 2024’s first quarter compared to the previous year. What’s more, a CNBC analysis of this year’s early May Chinese holiday reveals domestic tourism trips and revenue up by 28.2% and 13.5% respectively since 2019, while international trips remain slightly below 2019 levels.
Why does it matter where the Chinese choose to holiday? Because prior to Covid-19 Chinese vacationers made 170 million trips abroad, pouring US$248 billion into foreign economies and accounting for around 14% of global tourism spending, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council and Oxford Economics. But with viral online campaigns and TV series driving interest in lesser-known Chinese locations and their quirky local cultures, and the rest of the world seen as “unsafe and a bit mad” according to digital consultancy ChoZan, the domestic sector looks set to continue growing.
