Domestic tourism has almost reached the same levels as last year in China. Chinese airlines have also recorded promising figures for their domestic traffic …
The IMF estimates that world GDP could fall by -4.4% this year which will create the worst recession since the 1930s. As a result, the World Bank estimates that millions of people have fallen into poverty. In the airline industry, more than 40 airlines have gone bankrupt around the world.
According to the latest figures from IATA, global passenger demand fell by 70.6% in October compared to last year and international traffic is the most affected with a drop of 87.8%.
Almost as many travelers this year as in 2019 during the 8 days of national holidays
On the contrary, China is one of the few countries in the world where the recovery is being felt in the tourism sector, but it is exclusively associated with domestic travel.
“The industry is regaining confidence. The panic and anxiety that hit the industry in February has been replaced by reasonable optimism, ”said Daib Bin, president of the Chinese Academy of Tourism.
There has been an increase in occupancy rates, train ticket reservations and the relaunch of air routes since around the end of August.
And this trend has intensified quite recently. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, there were 637 million visitors to attractions in mainland China during the 8-day national holiday in early October, equivalent to 80 percent of last year.
A very honorable figure when compared to European figures.
According to Dai Bin quoted by China Daily, the desire for travel in the 4th quarter is again the same as last year among city dwellers.
Many agencies specializing in international tourism have refocused on domestic tourism with new trends: personalization, small groups, family travel on the roads …
Chinese air traffic fell just 1.4% in October
As a result, the airline sector suffers less in China. Domestic air traffic, for example, fell by only 1.4% in October compared to last year. Air France would no doubt dream of achieving such scores when its traffic has collapsed.
This upward trend in domestic travel is not new, however, as the average growth rate of domestic tourism has reached 10.3% since 2015.
GlobalData, however, forecasts a slight decrease for the coming years, due to the impact of the Covid, with an average increase of 7.7% from 2019 to 2023.
The recovery is still pending for international travel to Asia
In terms of international tourism, the recovery could take much longer for the 1.4 billion Chinese tourists.
Despite the current low impact of the pandemic in Asia, international travel has not resumed in this region of the world: it posted a drop of -95.6% in October, which according to IATA is the worst figure of all regions.
Travel restrictions are very strict in many Asian countries which necessarily limits travel between countries.
But as in China, domestic tourism is picking up in some Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia according to internal figures from Air Asia.
More than ever, the end of the crisis in the tourism sector will come in China as in France from local travel …
NB: be careful if you plan to go to China, the entry of foreign nationals has been suspended since 5/11/2020 except in special cases.