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OpinionAsia Opinion
David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Outside In | Global tourism is recovering, but for Asia it’s a mixed bag at best

  • UN Tourism forecasts a full recovery this year but the data is skewed by the robust recovery in Europe; across Asia, arrivals remain well below 2019 levels
  • Also, how quickly Chinese tourists will re-establish their position as the world’s largest group of top spenders is uncertain

Reading Time:4 minutes
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Tourists watch a folk art performance among pear blossoms in Dangshan, east China’s Anhui province, on April 2. China’s domestic tourism has recovered but it’s a different story for international travel. Photo: Xinhua
David Dodwell

Talk to the UN world tourism organisation – since January rebranded as UN Tourism – and the message is that international tourism is well on the road to recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. But talk to tourism officials in Hong Kong, South Korea, mainland China or Thailand and the story is: not so fast.

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Here in Hong Kong, officials are in a sweat over the millions flitting across the border for dinner and cheap shopping in Shenzhen, and the sluggish revival in tourists coming to experience a “Happy Hong Kong”. This weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament may provide a fillip, but angst remains. Monthly visitor arrivals have recovered to 3.9 million but that is still 28 per cent below the 2018 average.

According to the UN’s Tourism Recovery Tracker, global tourism last year recovered to within 12 per cent of the pre-Covid level, and is forecast to fully recover this year.

But behind the headlines, the story is more complex – and for many worldwide, rather less encouraging. For countries like China, it is a story of a “swift and sound” recovery in domestic tourism, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and of “tepid and partial growth” in international travel last year. In Europe, by far the world’s largest tourism market, it is a story of strong recovery. Across Asia, the story is anaemic at best.
And it is a story of new tourism markets and travel patterns, with much excitement focused on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf economies.
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The World Tourism Barometer reported almost 1.3 billion tourists last year, a 34 per cent rebound from 2022. Tourism export revenues rallied to an estimated US$1.6 trillion, just 5 per cent short of 2019’s, after collapsing in 2020. But behind these numbers was a more variable picture.

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