Robust Recovery

China’s tourism figures have surged by nearly 50 percent during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday. This indicates that the COVID-19 smoke has finally cleared, and that the world’s second-biggest economy is on its way to full recovery.

According to the statistics released by Chinese tourism authorities on February 18, the country’s tourism revenues increased by 47.3 percent and surpassed pre-pandemic level of 2019. At the height of COVID-19 in 2020, China’s domestic and inbound tourism revenue dropped by as much as 87.1 percent. 

However, according to the latest figures released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, tourism revenues have turned the tables around, thanks to a domestic travel boom and eight-day Spring Festival holiday. 

At least 474 million tourists visited various scenic spots across China, up 34.3 percent yearly. The figure is 19 percent higher than the Spring Festival holiday in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Tourist spending reached 632.69 billion yuan ($87.9 billion). This is 7.7 percent higher than during the 2019 holiday. In addition, 3.23 million inbound tourists and 3.6 million outbound tourists were also registered during the period, according to the data. 

By all standards, these remarkable figures mean one thing: the COVID-19 smoke has cleared in China, and the country’s economy is recovering. With the current global economic slump and recession, debt burden, reduced manufacturing output and falling retail spending affecting major economies, China’s success in rebuilding its tourism economy is injecting impetus to the world’s future development.

By comparison, the US, Japanese and German economies are either in bad shape or in recession. The US economy has faced a debt crisis for the past few years, borrowing money to avoid a recession. According to the US media, the US Treasury borrowed $726 billion in privately-held net marketable debt in the second quarter of 2023.

The borrowing was $449 billion higher than announced in January 2023, mainly due to the lower beginning-of-quarter cash balance ($322 billion) and projections of lower receipts and higher outlays ($117 billion). As if this was not bad enough, the US national debt reached $34 trillion by 2023.

However, the situation is worse in Japan and Germany. The German economy entered recession late last year. Its manufacturing sector went on a free fall amid rising energy prices caused by the loss of cheap Russian gas. 

The less said about Japan’s economy, the better. Its national currency, the Japanese Yen, has all but collapsed in recent years as inflation hit a 41-year high. These global economic developments, coupled with the recovery of the Chinese economy, are not insignificant. 

They mean that Chinese nationals have spare money to spend on domestic and international tourism while their counterparts from other global economies are struggling. 

Unlike their counterparts from Germany and Japan, for example, Chinese residents can afford to spend money during the Spring Festival in the malls and tourism hot spots rather than tighten their belts. They don’t have to stop swiping their credit cards. Nor are they forced to eat at home, pack their cars and cut their basic expenditures. 

If anything, the recovery of China’s tourism economy will remind the world of China’s resilience and sound economic management and astute political leadership. It will also convey a clear message that a crisis is not the end of the world. You can be drowning under the weight of COVID-19 today, and be smiling all the way to the various tourism hotpots tomorrow. 

Moving two weekends forward to make the Spring Festival a weeklong holiday was a master stroke. The Chinese government strategically encourages travelling, which boosted the tourism economy.

With Africa being one of the Chinese nationals’ preferred tourism destinations, the tourism sector in the continent may need to take advantage of the Chinese Spring Festival to boost their tourism economies.

The author is Editor-in-Chief of African Times.