Spring Festival travel: ASEAN tops list for Chinese tourists
Southeast Asia has become one of the most popular destinations for Chinese travellers during the Lunar New Year holiday, further proving that the country’s outbound tourism is recovering strongly.
Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam were among the top 10 most popular destinations for outbound travel during the Lunar New Year holiday, according to data from Chinese online travel platform Trip.com.
The Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, is China's biggest and most important festival.
The eight-day holiday that began on Feb 10 also marks the country’s first travel rush of the year, with the National Immigration Administration saying that more than 13.5 million inbound and outbound trips were recorded during the holiday season.
“As China implements a visa-free policy for a larger circle of friends, the country sees its inbound and outbound travels soar, with more Chinese tourists going abroad and more foreign travellers visiting China,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Feb 19.
“Spring Festival became the peak time of global tourism,” said Mao at a daily news conference.
Thailand welcomed nearly 880,000 foreign visitors between Feb 5 and Feb 11, according to the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
There was a significant surge in East and Southeast Asian arrivals, especially the Chinese mainland, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea.
Of those regions, China ranked top for foreign tourists during the Spring Festival with nearly 200,000 visitors – an increase of 38% compared with the previous week.
“Visa exemption policy for visitors from China, India, Taiwan, and Kazakhstan, and the increased frequency of flights, is greatly supporting the Thai tourism industry,” Thai Minister of Tourism and Sports Sudawan Wangsuphakitkoson told a recent news conference.
China and Thailand signed an agreement on mutual visa exemption for holders of ordinary passports and passports for public affairs last month. The policy will come into effect on March 1 and is expected to boost people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
President of the Thai-Chinese Cultural Relationship Council Pinit Jarusombat said the visa-free scheme will stimulate tourism and further strengthen bilateral ties between China and Thailand.
“Thailand is one of the most popular destinations among the Chinese as the two nations have close cultural bonds. Also, Thailand is a hub for investment and education in the ASEAN region,” he said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.
According to local media, Chinese tourists spend at least 20,000 yuan ($2,780) per person on average during trips to Thailand. This revenue has contributed to businesses at various levels.
Thailand is awaiting a boom in visitors during Songkran the water festival that falls in April and marks the beginning of the traditional Thai New Year.
After implementing a visa-free policy for Chinese travellers last December, Malaysia saw a total of more than 100,000 Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday a 50% increase compared to the same period last year, Sin Chew Daily reported on Feb 18.
Local tour operators estimated that these tourists spent between 1 billion ($208.59 million) and 1.5 billion ringgit in the country.
Though it is not an official holiday in Cambodia, the Chinese Lunar New Year is broadly celebrated in the kingdom and more than 1 million domestic and foreign tourists visited Cambodia during the Spring Festival celebrations, according to Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism.
Cambodian Ministry of Tourism Secretary of State and Spokesperson Top Sopheak said he believed that the number of Chinese visitors during the festival was on the rise as there were many bookings of flights and tour guides from Chinese holidaymakers.
Cheng Mingming, professor of digital marketing at Curtin University in Australia, said lower travel costs compared with long-haul destinations and visa-free or visa-on-arrival arrangements have made Southeast Asia more attractive during the Lunar New Year holiday.
“Social media, in particular, is playing a very crucial role for the young generations,” said Cheng, adding that many Chinese tourists in Southeast Asia are individual travellers and often use social media platforms to gather “authentic” travel-related information shared by other travellers instead of checking official tourism websites.
Noting that Southeast Asia has been a popular destination for Chinese travellers long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheng said he expects Southeast Asia to remain among the most popular destinations for Chinese outbound tourists, together with Maldives, Japan, and South Korea.
Long-haul destinations such as Australia, the United States, and Europe will need more time to bring the number of Chinese tourists back to pre-pandemic levels, Cheng said.
Yang Han
Yang Wanli
China Daily
Asia News Network
