Lunar New Year tourism hopes fizzle as Chinese stay home

By TIAN MCLEOD JI, ELAINE KURTENBACH and KANIS LEUNG
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere at all. From the beaches of Bali to Hokkaido’s powdery ski slopes, the hordes of Chinese often seen in pre-COVID days will still be missing, tour operators say. It’s a bitter disappointment for many businesses that were hoping lean pandemic times might be over after Beijing relaxed restrictions on travel and stopped requiring weeks of quarantine. Still, bookings for overseas travel have skyrocketed, suggesting it’s only a matter of time until the industry recovers.