As a sign that China’s struggling sector is beginning to recover, the government celebrated significant travel and tourism during the country’s Labor Day holiday time, which lasted from May 1 to May 5.
Regional travel fell far behind in terms of foreign travel, suggesting that China still needs to move forward in its recovery from the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic and its lockdowns.
The BBC found the Labor Day vacation figures from the Transport Ministry” staggering,” with the customary caveat that the totalitarian Chinese Communist regime’s information may be implicitly relied upon. Local travelers made 295 million visits, an boost of 28 percent since 2019, the last year before the pandemic.
” We’ve seen very strong domestic travel demand with search volumes in hotels up 67 % compared to last year, and flight volumes up 80 percent”, said Trip.com CEO Schubert Lou. On Labor Day 2024, vendors at Chinese tourist areas interestingly reported that business appeared to return to pre-pandemic levels.
International customers wearing protective suit prepare for their trip to China at Manila’s International Airport, Philippines on Jan. 18, 2021. ( AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File )
And yet, international tourism remains exceptionally low. China just entertained 35 million foreign visitors next month, versus 98 million before the pandemic, and, of course, many of those customers were business travellers and students more than visitors.
Round-trip flights between America and China are only flying between America and China on average for less than a fifth of their size in 2019, partly due to U.S. flights and their organizations ‘ demands for protection from China’s state-supported airlines ‘ “unfair contest.”
Local hospitality spending per person remained extremely low despite the increase in holidaymakers this year. Traveler Peng Han acknowledged that this was likely a sign that Chinese tourists are still concerned about the economy and are still looking for” good value options.”
Foreign tourists are much more hesitant to travel to China now because they oppose its murderous autocratic government and anxiety being taken hostage by the state, according to the BBC. Travel advisories have been issued by the United States and Australia warning about “arbitrary incarceration” and “harsh enforcement of native laws,” particularly the harsh National Security Law that China imposed on previously free-wheeling Hong Kong in 2020.
Another issue is that foreign visitors are really unfriendly with China’s high-tech totalitarian ideology. Many foreign guests are understandably hesitant to load Chinese express spyware onto their phones, perhaps if they can learn the language because many of those apps are only available in Taiwanese. However, many of those apps are already used by Chinese subjects to arrange travel and pay for purchases.  ,
Money is not accepted at a growing number of Chinese suppliers. AliPay and Twitter, two platforms that not every international visitor wants to get involved with, are sometimes the only options for paying for travel and accommodations.
While the totalitarian regime restricts access to apps used by foreigners, Western banks and credit institutions occasionally view transactions made in China as possible fraudulent even if those apps are effective.
On March 3, 2024, Chinese President Xi Jinping is shown in a film at the Beijing Military Museum. ( GREG BAKER/AFP )
Only 68 percent of foreign visitors could” successfully” use a Chinese mobile payment service, according to a survey conducted by an online travel agency called China Highlights, with about half of the rejections coming from their home credit card companies or banks. For visitors to China, China Highlights provides detailed advice on AliPay, a fairly simple business partner and friendly to foreign banks.
Beijing has expanded visa-free traveling from a growing list of European nations in an effort to boost international hospitality. This appears to have helped a small, but not enough to offset the additional negative aspects of international travel.
Foreign companies must satisfy the needs of both domestic and foreign visitors in order to get more foreign tourists. The East Asia Forum recommended changing to a cashless society in April, but it should n’t “exacerbate” the digital divide or “detract from the experience of foreigners.”
The South China Morning Post (SCMP ) reported in March that visitors from the UK, the United States, Canada, and Japan must still go through a lengthy and expensive visa application process, paying up to$ 185 in fees, and making numerous visits to consular offices.
” Pay issues, immigration problems, those are extended- position issues. I do n’t think the tourism thing will change until]those barriers ] fully open”, University of Tasmania Asian studies professor James Chin told the SCMP.
Voice of America News (VOA ) noted in January that Chinese customs officers ‘ interactions with them are becoming more tense despite all the talk of opening up to foreign visitors.
” One change is that China now]tacitly implies ] that every stranger, including every unusual Chinese, is a spy”, a Taiwanese- American living in Texas told VOA, referring to a weighty- handed” shop- espionage law” China imposed in July.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations ( CFR ), warned that the release of the counter-espionage law “encourages Chinese citizens to report to the government those who they perceive as being like the FBI.”
