The Lens: Fewer Chinese tourists travelling than before Covid-19 pandemic
- Prices for flights have soared and airlines have yet to recover their pre-coronavirus capacity
- Each week, we choose a picture from the news and provide questions to help you dive deeper into the topic
Chinese tourists pose for a photograph near the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Photo: ReutersHave some thoughts on this issue? Send us your response (no more than 300 words) by filling out this form or emailing [email protected] by May 3 at 11.59pm. We’ll publish the best response next week.
Observe and read
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Do you recognise the place in the picture?
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Based on the news snippet, why might Chinese tourists be travelling less?
News snippet
Reuters and Yanni Chow
Bookings in China for trips abroad during the upcoming May Day holiday point to a continued recovery in travel to Asian countries. However, the numbers remain far from pre-Covid levels, with long-haul airfares soaring and an insufficient number of flights available.
Overseas tour bookings for the upcoming holiday, for which many in China are off from April 29 until May 3, are up 157 per cent from the beginning of April, according to Ctrip, the country’s largest online travel firm.
But the numbers do not compare with the heyday of Chinese outbound tourism, and underlying consumer demand remains weak.
For example, in February 2023, more than 150,000 Chinese tourists travelled to Thailand, the latest data from the Thai Ministry of Tourism shows – the highest number in three years, but 85 per cent below February 2019 levels. Trips to Japan and South Korea have only recovered to 5 per cent to 10 per cent of levels from the same time period.
Thailand is the most popular destination, with the United States being the only country outside Asia in the top 10. “There has been a lot of news in China about inflation in Europe and high energy prices,” said Ying Zhang, a research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
In 2019, 155 million Chinese travelled abroad, spending US$254.6 billion, or close to the GDP of Vietnam, according to estimates by Citi.
Many Asian economies count on Chinese tourists. They accounted for 30 per cent to 35 per cent of all arrivals into Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea in the summer of 2019, and 25 per cent of visitors to the Philippines.
Research and discuss
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Why are Chinese travellers important for global tourism?
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How could different countries help their tourism industries recover from the pandemic?
The Lens: Dalai Lama under fire after video asking child to ‘suck my tongue’
Thoughts from last week
Valerie Shek, ISF Academy
I was shocked when I heard about the Dalai Lama’s recent encounter with a young boy. In a viral video, he could be heard asking a boy to kiss him on his cheeks and lips after the boy asked if he could hug him. The religious leader then put his forehead against the boy before sticking out his tongue. His actions seemed weird, and my stomach felt queasy when I heard him ask the boy to “suck his tongue”.
The footage triggered backlash online, with social media users condemning his behaviour as inappropriate.
But I realised from my research that in Tibetan culture, grandparents often ask their grandchildren for hugs, kisses, and tongue grabs. Thus, one must also consider his culture and its different customs when interpreting his actions.
I do not mean to say that this behaviour isn’t capable of being abusive, but it is worth noting that the religious leader does have a playful personality. So it is possible that he made an honest mistake in judgment between accepted cultural norms.
He has apologised to the child and his family “for the hurt his words may have caused”. His office further added, “His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before the camera. He regrets the incident.”
Though the incident was unsettling, we should not focus on his mistake but on his contributions to the world.