World awaits return of Chinese tourists

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China was the world's most important source of international travelers, and Chinese tourists were the biggest overseas spenders. According to the United Nations' World Tourism Organization, Chinese tourists spent $255 billion overseas and made 166 million overseas trips in 2019.

Tourism expenditure is an important criterion to determine the health of a country's tourism industry. With a population of more than 1.4 billion, massive increase in economic power and remarkable improvements in people's living standards, China became the most important source of outbound tourists who were also the biggest overseas spenders.

During the past three years, however, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many Chinese people to forgo international travel and cut household spending. But now that the suppressed spending power is likely to be unleashed thanks to China easing the prevention and control measures, there could be a huge explosion in spending by Chinese tourists.