South Korea and Japan have seen a surge in Chinese tourists after their currencies weakened against the yuan, while Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia and Thailand have attracted visitors with visa-free travel and relatively lower costs, according to data from ForwardKeys and bookings on online travel sites cited by Bloomberg.
Specifically, the top Asian destinations for Chinese tourists in the summer of 2024, in order, include: Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Macau.
After more than two years of Vietnam opening its doors to international visitors and more than a year of China reopening its borders due to the pandemic, this country has regained the throne as the largest market sending international visitors to Vietnam. Previously, this position belonged to Korean visitors. In April, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam reached more than 357,900, nearly 700 more than in May but still ranked second after Korea with nearly 370,000.
Vietnam has many beautiful landscapes that make people from other countries fascinated.
Particularly for the Taiwanese market (China), the number of visitors to Da Nang accounts for 10.8% of the international tourist market structure and ranks 2nd in the top 10 international tourist markets to Da Nang in the first 5 months of 2024.
China, Vietnam's largest tourist market before the Covid-19 pandemic, has returned to being the largest tourist market in May. In addition, Chinese tourists are also famous for their "willingness to spend".
Hoi An is one of the favorite destinations for Chinese tourists.
Within the framework of the program, the three localities of Thua Thien Hue - Da Nang - Quang Nam introduced to guests the typical tourism products of the three localities, focusing on promoting in-depth products suitable to the tastes of Taiwanese guests such as beach resort tourism, cultural tourism, cuisine, shopping, spa, MICE tourism, golf, wedding tourism and event programs of the three localities.
The "tourism diplomacy" efforts between Vietnam and China have contributed significantly to the number of Chinese tourists to Vietnam reaching its highest level in recent times.
Since 2015, Vietnam has applied a visa exemption policy for Chinese citizens within 15 days, creating favorable conditions for travel and tourism. Currently, there are many direct flights connecting major cities in Vietnam with cities in China, making it easy for tourists to travel.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the Vietnamese and Chinese governments, along with the attractiveness of the destination and tourism products, the number of Chinese tourists to Vietnam promises to continue to increase in the coming years.
The World Travel and Tourism Council forecast in early June that Chinese tourists would spend 1.8 trillion yuan ($250 billion) on overseas trips this year, exceeding pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
For now, Chinese tourists have yet to fully return to the numbers seen in 2019. Regional destinations for the summer season from June to August are expected to recover to around 80% of 2019 levels.
