By Monica Pitrelli
Published Jan 28, 2025
Net booking volume for trips to Thailand fell 15.6% from Jan. 13 to Jan. 20 from the previous week, after news of the rescue of Wang from a scamming compound along the Thai-Myanmar border this month, according to the marketing agency China Trading Desk.
The fallout is also extending to other countries in Southeast Asia, with data from the aviation analytics company VariFlight showing Chinese travelers also canceled holiday trips to Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia — albeit to a lesser degree, according to the company’s CEO, Subramania Bhatt.
“The biggest decline is in Thailand. The other Southeast Asian countries are, I would say, collateral damage,” said Bhatt. “A lot of folks plan to travel around the region as a single trip … so some have cancelled trips that originate from these countries too.”
Outbound travel: increasing but ‘uneven’
Despite the cancellations, parts of Southeast Asia are expected to attract more Chinese tourists this Lunar New Year than in 2019, according to Bhatt.
Flight bookings to Singapore are up 14.2% and to Malaysia 6.2% from 2019 levels, according to China Trading Desk’s data. South Korea is also expected to see Chinese tourist arrivals fully rebound during the festive period.
However, Japan — a top destination for outbound Chinese travelers this Lunar New Year – isn’t expected to see a full recovery of holiday visitors from China, with data showing arrivals will still be down 10% from 2019.
Outbound travel from China is “uneven” right now, said Bhatt, who added that while outbound travel from China is picking up, it’s still “way off” to long-haul destinations like Europe and the United States.
In addition to safety, geopolitics and costs are also driving Chinese travel sentiment, he said, which is why “politically neutral” countries, like Singapore and Malaysia, are seeing travelers return faster than other places.
“Travel to Europe is getting more expensive because of Russian airspace closure, so it’s costing [Chinese travelers] much more to fly,” he said.
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