Chinese staying home curbs tourism growth

Low count: Restaurant workers with food menus along a street in the Chinatown area of Bangkok. The number of visitors to Thailand from China was down in the first half of the year, as was the case with the rest of South-East Asia. — AFP

SINGAPORE: South-East Asian nations that were counting on Chinese travellers to drive tourism revenues and their economies post-Covid are finding the flow of visitors far from the flood they were hoping for.

China’s slower-than-expected economic recovery has left its population more hesitant to spend money heading abroad. The result: the number of Chinese arrivals in five South-East Asian countries varied between 14% and 39% in May compared to the 2019 numbers, latest official data compiled by Bloomberg News showed.