Commentary: Chinese tourists are travelling again, but mostly in their own country

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> JOONDALUP, Australia: <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> China’s tourism sector is once again making headlines, but this time the buzzwords are “domestic travel”.

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> Before COVID-19 brought much of the world to a standstill, China was the biggest tourism source market in the world, making <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> 155 million overseas trips in 2019 <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> and spending a collective US$255 billion. That same year, Chinese tourists also made more than <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> 6 billion domestic trips

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> , supporting jobs and businesses across China. The travel and tourism sector then accounted for 11.05 per cent of China’s gross domestic product.

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> After the pandemic, as borders re-opened and travel restrictions were lifted, the world waited eagerly for Chinese travellers and their tourist dollars to return. They’re still waiting.  

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> Don’t get me wrong. Chinese tourists are indeed travelling, <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»>and the industry is once again gaining worldwide attention. However, the recovery pattern varies across the three different aspects of tourism: Domestic, inbound and outbound.

<span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»> In 2023, Chinese tourists took <span lang=«EN-AU» xml:lang=«EN-AU»>87 million trips abroad, which works out to about 56 per cent of the 2019 figure. Meanwhile, domestic travel logged 4.9 billion trips, nearly 82 per cent of the pre-pandemic figure. As for inbound tourism, China welcomed 35.5 million foreign visitors in 2023, representing less than 40 per cent