China: travel will return to growth by 2022

Analysts expect the Chinese tourists’ appetite for overseas travel to recover beyond 2019 figures within two years.

China.- The China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) has reported that it expects demand for international travel from China to grow beyond 2019 figures by 2022.

In a recent editorial note, Professor Wolfgang Georg said he had consulted several companies related to Chinese outbound travelling.

For 2022, 29 out of 38 participants said they expected their business to be doing “much better” than in 2019. Another four said they expected to be doing “somewhat better” and three anticipate things will remain the same.

Only two said they expected to be doing “somewhat worse” in 2022 than in the pre-pandemic era.

Analysts expect Chinese tourists’ appetite for overseas travel to prevail with tourism recovering quickly once airlines resume operations. This could be good news for Asian gaming companies who rely on Chinese high rollers.

Visitors from mainland China to Macau currently remain down by more than 90 per cent year-on-year.