2024-01-05 07:48:09
After Corona, people in China are thirsty for travel again. China’s government wants to help the important tourism industry get back on its feet. German holidaymakers in China also benefit from this.
Peking.
China’s tourism industry is hoping for a significant upswing in 2024 with charm offensives and political help. The Chinese government has encouraged the tourism industry to invest with aid and tax relief, said financial expert He Xiaoyu of the German Press Agency.
The authorities are also optimistic: The China Tourism Academy, which is part of the Ministry of Tourism, expects six billion trips to China in 2024 and revenue of six trillion yuan (around 773 billion euros). For 2023, it calculated 5.4 billion trips and collected 5.2 trillion yuan. Everyone who travels is counted, i.e. if a family of four goes on a trip, that’s four trips.
The corona pandemic had a huge impact on the industry, said He. Domestic and foreign tourism has grown steadily over the past four years. However, the level was probably correspondingly low: strict Corona rules had made travel in the most populous country in the world next to India hardly possible. Only when the government dropped the bans did the industry recover somewhat in 2023. However, fewer tourists continued to arrive from abroad than before the pandemic.
Advantages for Germans too
The 2023 holidays showed how hungry the Chinese were for travel. According to government data, the industry took in 753.4 billion yuan (around 98.9 billion euros) during the holiday week around the national holiday in October, 129.5 percent more than in the previous year and 1, 5 percent more than in 2019 – before the start of the pandemic. During the free days around the turn of the year, the authorities counted 5.18 million entries and exits, which was almost five times more than a year earlier and about the same as in 2019.
According to financial expert He, tourism plays an important role in the world’s second largest economy. In 2021, the sector and related industries accounted for 3.96 percent of China’s economic output, He calculated. However, China also wants to attract more people from abroad again. In December, Beijing relaxed visa requirements for Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Malaysia for a year as a test: anyone who wants to travel to China for less than 15 days no longer needs a visa.
Still problems for foreigners in China
According to travel entrepreneur and economist James Liang, visa freedom should lead to more foreign exchange income and economic growth. The extent to which travel from abroad is growing also shows how cosmopolitan a country is, wrote Liang in an analysis published at the end of December. China could thus advance the competitiveness and innovative ability of its companies in the long term.
Liang also saw some catching up to do: the government could offer electronic visas. To date, it has not been possible to apply for a visa online in Germany without going to a Chinese representation. Chinese people also mostly pay cashless with their cell phones. This could be inconvenient for foreigners without these accesses. According to Liang, the limited internet is also a challenge.
Chat apps popular in Europe are often blocked in China. Users have to bypass the block using paid apps. “I hope relevant departments and companies can address this issue and provide them with a more convenient and affordable experience,” Liang wrote. (dpa)
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