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Lunar New Year tourism hopes fizzle as Chinese stay home
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A Chinese tourist in traditional Thai costume poses for a photograph at Wat Arun or the "Temple of Dawn" in Bangkok, Thailand on Jan. 12, 2023. A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism in Asia over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere. - photo by AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit
BANGKOK (AP) — A hoped-for boom in Chinese tourism in Asia over next week’s Lunar New Year holidays looks set to be more of a blip as most travelers opt to stay inside China if they go anywhere. From the beaches of Bali to Hokkaido’s powdery ski slopes, the hoards of Chinese often seen in pre-COVID days will still be missing, tour operators say. It’s a bitter disappointment for many businesses that had been hoping lean pandemic times were over after Beijing relaxed restrictions on travel and stopped requiring weeks’ long quarantines.