China claims spot as No: 1 international tourism source market

Despite the pandemic, recent research says that China will still be the number one source market for international tourism. According to quantitative research of China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, China will reclaim its top position in 2020 with 18 million Chinese international trips, most of which however happened in January, representing about 10% of the number for 2019.

Travelers from mainland China can be expected to be responsible for more than a million border crossings, with Macao as the main destination. A number of other countries in Asia welcome Chinese visitors again, including Thailand, Laos, Japan, Singapore, and others. Chinese citizens within the Schengen region in Europe can also travel between European countries.  Meanwhile, Singapore-based Scoot airlines introduced a Chinese-language chatbot at a time when the Southeast-Asia city-state is lifting border restrictions on visitors from mainland China in the first week of November. It is used primarily in Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The Chinese chatbot has functionalities like searching and booking direct flights, post-ancillary sales, resending itineraries, feedback, and more.

At another part of the globe, the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom has declared Covid-19 test reports issued by Britain’s National Health Service invalid as health certificates for China-bound travelers due to the growing number of imported cases from the country. The invalidation of negative NHS test results took effect on Nov 14.