Top Asia Tourist Draws Empty As Chinese Visitors Dwindle

In 2019, 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited Chiang Mai, generating 15 billion baht ($450 million) of tourism-related income, money sorely missed across the region as countries shut their borders to most travel, Tassanee Vejpongsa and Elaine Kurtenbach reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Chiang Mai group tours are due to resume from Feb. 6, but the number of tourists who will come will depend on how many flights are operating, said Suladda Sarutilawan, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Chiang Mai office.

Group tours are due to resume from Feb. 6, but the number of tourists who will come will depend on how many flights are operating, said Suladda Sarutilawan, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Chiang Mai office.

She said the hope is for between 500,000 and 600,000 visitors from China this year.

In the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the shops and restaurants — some decorated with festive red lanterns and red and gold envelopes used for Lunar New Year cash presents — were still relatively empty.

Bali’s first post-pandemic direct flight from China arrived on Sunday, bringing 210 tourists from the southern city of Shenzhen.

Fewer than 23,000 Chinese tourists visited Bali from January-November of last year and only a quarter of the island’s 80 tour operators who mostly handle Chinese clients are operating, said Putu Winastra, chairman of the Bali Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies, Sigit Purwono and Edna Tarigan reported for AP.

Further afield in Australia, Sydney-based travel agent Eric Wang said the high cost of travel still appears to be keeping Chinese away even as Chinese airlines increase flights. Chinese accounted for nearly a third of all tourism spending in Australia before the pandemic, with more than 1.4 million visiting in 2019.

Australia, like Japan, the U.S. and some other countries, is requiring visitors coming from China to take COVID-19 tests before departure.

But Wang, who works for CBT Holidays, a company specializing in travel to and from China, said he didn’t view that as a serious obstacle, Rod McGuirk and Alice Fung also reported for AP.

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