Citing analysis released jointly by the WTTC and Oxford Economics, Simpson says that travel and tourism are estimated to have contributed 7.8 per cent to the Chinese economy in 2023, employing about 74 million people in an industry worth US$1.48 trillion.
“If you compare where China is to the rest of the world, it’s still slightly behind [in international recovery],” Simpson says, identifying the lack of airlift capacity and complex visa requirements as the main challenges.
“We have a little bit of a problem at the minute with people from the West, and particularly America, getting here by air because of the Russian airspace issues,” she says. “American airlines are not flying over Russian airspace [because of its war on Ukraine], so it means adding on some time.”
“Whenever you put a transfer into a trip, it always puts…
