After three years of isolation and deprivation blocking in Chinese people they are able to travel again and book tickets and vacations frantically. Before the pandemic, China was the number one source, according to McKinsey executives. tourists 150 million Chinese travel abroad every year. The same executives estimate that the flow of tourists from China will grow this year from 5% of the 2019 level last month to 50% of the 2019 level by the summer. talking to Financial Times, an executive at a Shanghai travel company who wished to remain anonymous, said his company was already preparing feverishly. He predicted a tourism “boom” that would coincide with the Lunar New Year at the end of January. For example, Sofitel Sentosa hotels in Singapore are preparing special Chinese New Year travel packages that will be focused exclusively on Chinese tourists and will include a buffet with a special Chinese dinner and romantic excursions for couples. After all, in Japan, travel bus company Hato Bus has announced that it will be bringing back tours with Chinese-speaking guides and chaperones as it expects a full return of tourism from China in the spring.

In addition, trip.com, which allows early bookings, reports that travel bookings increased by 250% in just one day, last Tuesday, when Beijing announced the lifting of mandatory quarantines. After all, the countries of Asia, which are the most popular tourist destinations for this audience, are waiting for Chinese tourists with special impatience. Over the past three years and successive lockdowns in China, these countries have lost $255 billion in tourism revenue that Chinese tourists spend annually. The absence of these hidden resources has created a funding gap in many Asian countries, as from Thailand to Japan they owe the bulk of their visitors to China. While all this is at the level of expectations. According to VariFlight, which tracks airline passenger traffic, international flights to and from China and Asia’s tourist destinations are still only 8% of pre-pandemic levels. However, airlines are trying to increase their capacity in time. Among them are Malaysian Arilines, as well as Vietnamese low-cost airline VietJet Aviation, which hope to restore flights to and from China to pre-pandemic levels by June of the new year. Others, such as Singapore Airlines and Australia’s Qantas Airways, declined to comment on their plans as they say the situation is still ongoing.

Before the pandemic, the country was the number one source for tourists, with 150 million Chinese traveling abroad every year.

And not only the tourism sector is waiting for Chinese investment. The anticipation of the return of the Chinese to the shopping streets of tourist cities around the world in recent days has led to a rise in the shares of luxury goods companies. This is because China represents 21% of the global luxury goods market with a total value of 350 billion euros. In addition, the restart of the Chinese economy is fueling high expectations of a surge in demand for commodities, both industrial metals and energy. Expectations have already led to higher prices for oil and industrial metals such as copper. After all, inside China, the lifting of restrictive measures is expected to boost retail sales, which are extremely sensitive to quarantine. However, with the restart, retail sales are projected to grow by 11% in 2023, reaching $50 trillion. yuan, the amount is equivalent to 7 trillion. Dollar According to analysts at Citi Group, a new wave of cases that emerged in China as an inevitable development of the lifting of restrictive measures will peak before mid-January.

In addition, an American Chamber of Commerce China survey found that at least 70% of respondents believe the impact of the new wave of cases will last no more than the first three months of 2023. According to the head of the chamber, Michael Hart, the heads of foreign companies will again begin to travel to China within the next year. However, he is not as optimistic about the investment, which he believes will take longer to pay off.