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China travel: affluent jet-setting tourists stuck in China are fuelling surge in demand for luxurious domestic destinations
- Resorts and travel agencies hope to cash in with high-end travellers who won’t be leaving China in the foreseeable future amid the pandemic
- Analysts see a growing reservoir of pent-up spending power among travel-starved tourists, and it has triggered a boom in upmarket tourism products
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Luxury resorts in China’s southernmost tourism destination have an opportunity to cash in on stymied international travel as affluent domestic holiday-goers seek out tropical shores to tide them over until they can again return to their jet-set lifestyle abroad.
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Unable to bask in the sun of far-flung destinations such as the Mediterranean or the Maldives due to coronavirus restrictions, China-based holidaymakers are increasingly turning to the beach-resort city of Sanya on Hainan island, one of the nation’s few higher-end travel destinations.
Premium hotels and luxury camping/glamping sites in Yunnan province and other parts of the country are also potential destinations for those in desperate need of a domestic getaway to curb their wanderlust until international travel restrictions are eased.
Before the global pandemic, Chinese travellers used to be the biggest contributors to global tourism. A total of 155 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and spent about US$254.6 billion. That equates to an average of US$1,643 per traveller.
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But in the first half of 2021, each domestic traveller spent an average of just 872.27 yuan (US$134.50), the ministry said.
This reflects a growing reservoir of pent-up spending power, and analysts say China’s travel-starved tourists – comprising mostly middle- and upper-middle-class consumers– have triggered a boom in high-end tourism products domestically.
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