Published on : Sunday, February 2, 2020
From Tokyo to London, hotels, casinos, airlines and retailers are already facing a downturn and are bracing for even longer time of plummeting spending after China banned outbound travel and governments tightened border controls.
About 163 million Chinese tourists embarked on overseas trips in 2018, accounting for more than 30% of travel retail sales worldwide. In 2003 when SARS broke out, only 20 million Chinese travelers traveled abroad. China’s increased prosperity and consumption have made many international cities, luxury brands and retail industry groups more dependent than ever on Chinese travelers.
The virus is an addition to an uncertainty that the global industry was already experiencing following China’s economic slowdown.
Just before this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of people in China visit family or go on vacations, authorities locked down Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the virus originated.
Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia have tightened borders to curb inbound travel from China, while other nations, including the U.S., are also considering restrictions, as the number of infected people surpasses 8,100.