BEIJING – Chinese tourists flocked to popular tourist destinations across Asia during the Lunar New Year holiday, with visitor numbers and spending in destinations including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia exceeding pre-COVID-19 levels.
Chinese tourists were allowed visa-free entry into Southeast Asian countries, boosting traffic and signaling a strong recovery in travel since Beijing in early 2023 lifted strict anti-COVID-19 restrictions that had effectively closed China’s borders for three years.
The increase is also a welcome relief for countries with tourism industries that depend on Chinese people and their spending to grow, although prospects for a sustained recovery in international travel have been clouded by a weak mainland economy and shaky financial markets that have led domestic consumers to save money.
“Despite macroeconomic headwinds, we believe Chinese people remain willing to spend on travel-related experiences, and travel-related spending is likely to continue to outpace overall domestic consumption,” HSBC said in a research note.
According to travel site Trip.com, bookings to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia from Feb. 10 to 17 increased by more than 30 percent compared to the same period in 2019, while there was also an increase in Chinese tourists to Hong Kong, Macau, Japan and South Korea.
The 2024 holiday will last eight days, one day longer than the 2019 Lunar New Year holiday.
Reflecting the boost from visa exemptions, hotel bookings in Bangkok increased threefold year-on-year between Feb. 10 and 13, while hotel bookings in Singapore increased ninefold, according to travel platform LY.com.
Spending in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia on Chinese mobile payments platform Alipay grew 7.5% from Feb. 9 to 12 compared to 2019, and is almost seven times higher from 2023, according to Alipay.
But overall consumer spending has only recovered to 82% of levels four years ago, the company said.
Middle East surge
The Middle East has proven to be a popular destination for Chinese New Year as they seek new adventures, with travellers to Saudi Arabia up more than nine times compared to 2019 and bookings to the United Arab Emirates up 60 percent, Trip.com announced.
Macau, the only Chinese gambling hub where citizens can legally gamble in casinos, recorded a surge over the holiday period, with more than one million Chinese tourists arriving and average hotel occupancy rates reaching 95 percent, according to official data.
The surge in tourism bodes well for some of the world’s largest casino operators in the former Portuguese territory, including Sands China and Wynn Macau.
JPMorgan said in a note that it expects total daily casino revenue during the holiday peak to reach US$124 million (S$166.8 million) for the first time in more than four years, surpassing the US$112 million generated during the Golden Week period in October 2023.
The company said it expects mass gaming rates to reach 120% of pre-COVID levels and that it expects total gaming revenue to increase more than 80% year-over-year to $2.36 billion in February, the highest level in more than four years.
