The coronavirus outbreak has halted the surge of Chinese travels abroad. Efforts to contain the virus through travel bans has also affected the global tourism industry.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese travels have been pushed backed by canceled flights due to restrictions set by other countries on anyone traveling from mainland China. The overall decline in tourism has led to the cancellation of tours and trips of cruise lines due to plummeting demand.
Moreover, many countries postponed several customary and public activities, such as international events and conferences.
Hotels, airlines
The National Immigration Administration (NIA) reported that Chinese travels reached 1.05 billion for outbound trips from 2009 to 2018. There were over 160 million travels in 2018 alone. Meanwhile, around 330 million trips took place between the year 1978, when China began its reform, and 2008.
Beijing's brand new Daxing International Airport is near empty, with Chinese travelers staying home because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In 2018, Chinese tourists spent $277 billion in their travels abroad, according to the United Nations World Trade Organization. Based on China Outbound Tourism Research, all the countries in the top 10 destinations for Chinese travelers were in Asia. The list includes Thailand, Japan South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Macao. These countries have been struggling to overcome the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak.
"China is the single largest outbound travel market in the world, in terms of spending," said Matthew Dass, an economist with Tourism Economics, in a research note.
Moreover, the 2020 forecast for Chinese travels saw a low score from Tourism Economics downgraded because of the coronavirus. The firm predicts 25 million fewer outbound trips by Chinese travelers if the outbreak lasts longer and becomes more serious than the SARS crisis. This loss is equivalent to as much as $73 billion in spending.
Japan and Thailand are the major countries that will be hit the most by the decline in travels, according to The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO's report suggests that Japan could lose $1.29 billion in tourism revenue while Thailand may suffer a $1.15 billion loss.
"This outbreak is beyond anyone's imagination," said Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com, in an interview with CNN Business.
Hotels such as Marriott and Hilton are also experiencing low occupancy and declines in bookings from outbound Chinese travelers in Asia and the US. "Millions of orders have been canceled," said Sun regarding both domestic and international trips.
