Due to ongoing concerns about the kidnapping of actor Wang Xing, Chinese tourists are canceling their plans to visit Thailand over the Lunar New Year holiday.
The marketing firm China Trading Desk reports that following the announcement of Wang’s rescue from a scammer compound along the Thai-Myanmar border this month, net booking volume for travel to Thailand dropped 15.6% from January 13 to January 20 compared to the previous week.
Data from the aviation analytics firm VariFlight indicates that Chinese tourists also canceled vacation vacations to Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, albeit to a smaller extent, indicating that the repercussions is also reaching other Southeast Asian nations, according to Subramania Bhatt, CEO of the company.
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Thailand has had the largest reduction. “I would say that the other countries in Southeast Asia are collateral damage,” Bhatt added. Since many people intend to visit the area all at once, some people have also canceled journeys that start in these nations.
According to data, Chinese tourists made more Lunar New Year travel reservations to other countries during the same week in January, such as Australia (+4.8%), the United Arab Emirates (+4.7%), and South Korea (+3.9%).
Last Wednesday, Thailand’s prime minister tried to reassure Chinese tourists that visiting Thailand is safe by posting an AI-generated video on the government’s Facebook page. China’s State Council reported a few days prior that Chinese officials were willing to cooperate with countries in Southeast Asia in order to combat cross-border scamming networks.
According to Yang Lei, an analyst at the Hong Kong-based financial services firm China Galaxy International, other destinations may benefit from Chinese tourists’ reluctance to travel to Southeast Asia.
She told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Monday that Chinese travelers are currently growing increasingly wary of visiting Thailand and other Southeast nations. South Korea and Japan will remain the top destinations for outbound travel. Additionally, individuals are eager to travel to the US, Australia, and New Zealand for 2018 Chinese New Year.
Fears about human trafficking
Chinese tourists’ concerns about visiting Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries were rekindled by the kidnapping of Wang, who had been enticed to Bangkok in search of employment.
Since the publication of the 2023 Chinese hit film No More Bets, which portrayed a Chinese couple who were enticed to Southeast Asia for work but were actually part of a human trafficking operation, Thailand officials have been trying to win back the trust of mainland tourists.
Despite being a work of fiction, the film portrayed a scenario that the UN estimates has trapped hundreds of thousands of people in real life.
According to the UN, there are a lot of compounds in border regions outside of Thailand, such as Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. These areas are frequently special economic zones with little to no rule of law. Often teeming with drug use, wildlife trafficking, and other illicit activity, the regions have been dubbed “lawless playgrounds.”
Outbound travel: increasing but uneven
According to Bhatt, despite the cancellations, more Chinese visitors are anticipated to visit regions of Southeast Asia this Lunar New Year than in 2019.
According to statistics from China Trading Desk, flight reservations to Malaysia are up 6.2% and to Singapore are up 14.2% from 2019 levels. During the holiday season, Chinese tourists are also anticipated to fully return to South Korea.
A complete recovery of Chinese holiday visitors is not anticipated for Japan, a popular destination for outbound Chinese tourists, this Lunar New Year; statistics indicates that numbers will still be 10% lower than in 2019.
Although outbound travel from China is increasing, it is still far from reaching long-haul destinations like the US and Europe, according to Bhatt, who also claimed that outbound travel from China is currently unequal.
He stated that Chinese travel sentiment is influenced by geopolitics and costs in addition to safety, which is why tourists are returning to politically neutral nations like Singapore and Malaysia more frequently than to other locations.
The closing of Russian airspace has increased the cost of passage to Europe, making flying much more expensive for [Chinese travelers], he said.
Chinese consumers are eager to spend money on experiences, particularly travel-related ones, despite low consumer confidence in a sinking economy, according to Yang.
We anticipate that both incoming and outbound travel will continue to have strong gross momentum during the approaching Chinese New Year, she said.
Chinese officials anticipate that during the 40-day Lunar New Year travel frenzy, which started on January 14, a record-breaking nine billion journeys will be made.