Visa delays and flight supply shortages are slowing down the full recovery of outbound travel from China following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the CEO of Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel company.
“There are two big hurdles to recovery: the first is visa restrictions, and the second is air transport capacity,” Jane Sun said at a news conference in Shanghai on Thursday. “We hope these two bottlenecks can be eased so we can attract more tourists.” [Chinese] We reach customers in different countries.”
The release of pent-up international travel demand is “creating a strong trajectory” for Trip.com, but the bleak economic outlook has left the company cautiously optimistic, she added.
After Beijing lifted its strict zero-COVID policies in the first quarter of 2023, millions of Chinese consumers resorted to “revenge consumption”, boosting spending on leisure and entertainment, boosting revenues for hotels, airlines, tourist destination operators and restaurants across mainland China.
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Trip.com CEO Jane Sun in April 2019. Photo: AFP
But international travel was sluggish: Just 87 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2023, down from 155 million in 2019, according to data from the China Tourism Academy.
For example, Chinese nationals planning to travel to Germany currently must wait at least four months to be interviewed by a visa officer, and visa delays are preventing thousands of mainland Chinese tourists from visiting the US, Sun said.
Meanwhile, international flights have only reached about 70% of pre-COVID levels and are likely to reach only 80% by the end of 2024, she added.
“We have a lot of [Chinese] “The outbound wave of sending customers to countries around the world has just begun,” Sun said. “Going forward, [business] will be our focus.”
Trip.com reported first-quarter revenue of 11.9 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), up 29 percent from the same period in 2018. Net profit rose 28 percent to 4.3 billion yuan, well above analyst expectations, according to Bloomberg.
According to Sun, online travel agencies’ revenue from domestic travel services increased more than 20% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
Total domestic passenger numbers over China’s Labor Day holiday from May 1 to 5 exceeded 272 million per day, up 24% from the same period in 2019, according to official data, and was in line with a forecast of 270 million by research firm Gavekal Dragonomics.
Tourism spending during the five-day holiday period was 14 percent higher than in 2019.
Gavekal said the increase in passenger numbers far outpacing the increase in spending meant that mainland Chinese tourists were, on average, spending less as budget-conscious consumers opted for cheaper hotels and meals while traveling.
In a report on China’s hotel industry published this week, property consultancy JLL said many of the big hotel chains missed out on the benefits of the travel boom as tourists opted for lesser-known resorts.
Sun said stiff competition is also making it difficult for hoteliers to raise room rates.
