Travel, but safely: how chinese outbound tourism responds to the pandemic

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s tourism has been hit hard. In 2021 only 8.5 million international travellers were recorded, a number that is even lower than the 10 million recorded in the year 2000. However, this is still a 27% increase on 2020, a black year for Chinese outbound tourism, even if it represents only 17% of the 2019 levels. 

The September 2021 sentiment survey by Dragon Trail states that 81% of international Chinese travellers interviewed reacted favourably to contents with tourist information on foreign destinations but, at the same time, safety was perceived as unsatisfactory. In fact, as also reported in the survey conducted in November 2021 by the China Tourism Academy82.8% of respondents expected to visit a foreign destination without cases of Covid-19, believing that destinations with a low number of positive cases or a high number of vaccines carried out are safer. 

Consistent with this sentiment, another survey conducted by Dragon Trail to 1.027 Chinese international travellers in November 2021 profiled a target traveller who, in addition to putting safety first and belonging to the post-1980s and 1990s generations, lives in China’s new first tier cities and travels in search of nature (81%) and culture (76%). In light of this, the top three international destinations reported by respondents for post-pandemic travel, preferably with family rather than alone or with people they do not know, were: 

  • Japan 
  • France 
  • US 

At Twissen, we believe that it is now fundamental to implement security measures to counter the escalating pandemic. Technological innovation and automation represent necessary instruments to guarantee high security standards and communicate as well as increase the target’s perception of reliability. 



Author: Maria Vittoria Bandera
Graduate of the Master in Tourism Economics and Management of CISET Ca' Foscari. In 2019 she joins the Twissen Team specialising in Destination Management projects and activities of video editing.

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