The number of travellers from China heading to the United States has fallen sharply and is slowing the return of foreign travel among Chinese.
Foreign travel among Chinese last year remained 59% below pre-pandemic levels, according to China Trading Desk’s latest China Outbound Travel Sentiment Survey.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting 20 top foreign destinations in 2023 was 41% of their numbers in 2019, when 74.4 million left the country, according to China Trading Desk founder, Subramania Bhatt.
While travel to Macao, Singapore, UK, UAE, Australia and Hong Kong rose above 50% of their 2019 levels, Chinese tourism to several other once-popular destinations remained far below pre-pandemic rates.
Notably, while more than 4.4 million Chinese visited the US in 2019, only 439,00 visited the country last year, up from 93,246 in 2022.
“In the Chinese press and on social media, the image of the United States is increasingly negative,” said Bhatt. “Reports of mass shootings and videos of city streets overrun by homeless people have played a factor in keeping Chinese travel to the US low.
“Geopolitical tensions, the high cost of travel to the US and the unfavourable exchange rate haven’t helped either.”
Fears of nuclear contamination following the Fukushima disaster have played a role in dampening Chinese travel to Japan, Bhatt noted. While nearly 10 million visited that country in 2019, only 3.7 million did in 2023.
Anxiety also suppressed Chinese travel to Thailand last year, but for different reasons. The popularity of Chinese-language movies depicting crime in South-east Asia was a significant factor in depressing Chinese travel to Thailand and Cambodia. While more than 10 million Chinese visited Thailand in 2019, fewer than four million did last year.
China Trading Desk’s end-of-year survey also revealed that a new profile of the average Chinese tourist is emerging. Nearly six in 10 Chinese tourists in 2023 were female and more than half had bachelor’s degrees, while 56% of Chinese travellers live in a Tier 1 city.
Bhatt added, “While young, urban professionals from Tier 1 cities continue to dominate, there’s an intriguing rise in female travellers, highlighting a shift in the gender dynamics of Chinese foreign tourism. This development beckons marketers to tailor their strategies to engage this increasingly powerful consumer segment.”
Attracting China’s Gen-Y and Gen-Z tourists requires appealing to their desire for adventure, personal growth and social media-shareable experiences, said Bhatt.
Europe, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Japan were the five most popular destinations for Chinese tourists in 2023; however, China Trading Desk research has found slight but significant variations across generations.
For China’s Gen-Y and Gen-Z, South Korea is an increasingly popular choice while Thailand has become less popular. Conversely, China’s Gen-X prefers Thailand over South Korea. The popularity of South Korean cultural exports, particularly K-Pop and its movies and TV shows, are a large factor driving younger Chinese interest in travelling there, Bhatt explained.
China Trading Desk’s Travel Sentiment Survey also included the following findings:
- 63% of respondents who travelled abroad in 2023 had not travelled outside the country before.
- 68% prefer to book less than one month in advance.
- AirAsia, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines were the three most popular airlines for Chinese tourists travelling abroad.
- 53% of respondents planning to travel abroad plan to spend at least 25,000 RMB ($3,500 USD).
- Travel App, Xiaohongshu, Douyin were the three most popular sites used to buy flights and hotels.