The Chinese Tourism Association in Portugal considers the reopening of China to be “good news” for Portugal, as operators around the world prepare for the return of tens of millions of Chinese to the global market.
“The reopening of China is good and positive news for the tourism industry in Portugal,” said Yong Liang, president of the association, which was founded in February 2019 with the aim of promoting Portugal in China as a tourist destination.
Stressing the importance of increasing the frequency of air connections between the two countries, Liang said he believed the number of tourists visiting Portugal will increase “month by month.”
The association previously set a goal of reaching one million Chinese tourists by 2025.
“With the pandemic, it may take a little longer, but we will continue working on that first objective, as well as to respond to the challenge that we are facing to increase the average stay of Chinese tourists in Portugal,” said Yong Liang.
According to data provided to Lusa by Tiago Brito, the permanent representative of Turismo de Portugal in China, more than 385,000 Chinese visited Portugal in 2019, the last year before the pandemic. Tourists from China spent a total of 224 million euros in the country, 20% more than in 2018.
The Chinese are among the tourists who spend the most. China, the world’s largest source of tourists, kept its borders closed for almost three years as part of the ‘zero cases’ policy of Covid-19, which was dismantled last month after protests in several cities across the country.
Under that policy, anyone arriving in the country was required to quarantine for up to three weeks at designated facilities. The number of international flights dropped by up to 2% compared to the pre-pandemic period.
The air connection between Portugal and China began to be carried out only once a week. Until the start of the pandemic, the flight was carried out three times a week.
Beijing Capital Airlines, which operates the connection, told Lusa that the replacement of the original frequency should take place before the summer, noting that Chinese agencies are not yet organizing trips to Portugal and Spain.
“It will depend on the evolution of the market,” said a company source.
The scarcity of commercial flights to Europe, the many Chinese with expired passports or without Schengen visas, mean that the impact of China’s reopening could take some time to materialise.
Yang Qian, a Chinese originally from north China’s Hebei province, told Lusa that she had to postpone her appointment to apply for a passport, given the “hour-long” queue that now forms every day at the Division of Administration of Departures and Entrances of Beijing. Public Security Bureau, agency in charge of preparing and renewing the travel document.
The China Overseas Tourism Research Institute estimated that 18 million Chinese tourists will travel abroad in the first half of the year, followed by 40 million in the second.
In 2019, 155 million Chinese traveled abroad, according to an analysis by US investment bank Citigroup.
The same analysis found that, in total, tourists from mainland China spent US$255 billion (€235 billion) abroad in the last year before the pandemic.
The analysis projected a strong recovery in the first quarter of 2023 and a massive return to tourism in the second.
“This year I will definitely travel across borders,” Han Qing, a native Chinese from Beijing, told Lusa. “It is time to reconnect with the world,” she added.
Source: TSF
