
As people around the world rushed to vacation abroad following the pandemic, the term “revenge travel” became widely used. Despite three years of harsh lockdowns, China is proving an exception to this global ‘vengeance’ phenomenon.
Countries hoping that China’s reopening would send hordes of Chinese visitors — once among the world’s biggest spenders — back to their hotels and shops have been left sorely disappointed. While travel barriers are gradually easing, many Chinese holidaymakers are turning to cheaper, trendier domestic destinations instead. The country’s sluggish economic recovery is further delaying their return to the international market.
“Throughout the rest of the world, people thought the moment the border opened, probably everyone would want to jump on a plane right away,” says Imke Wouters, a Hong Kong-based partner at consultancy Oliver Wyman. “That’s just not what is happening.”
Even with all China’s COVID restrictions lifted, the latest figures are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels. International departures from China in the first three quarters this year were 59 percent behind that of 2019, according to data from travel analytics firm ForwardKeys.
“China’s reopening is different to the rest of the world in that latent demand has been slower to come back,” says Steve Saxon, a Shenzhen-based partner at McKinsey, who says frictions throughout the system are to blame.
Those issues include the fact that China, which began easing its bans on group tours in January, did not significantly expand the list of approved destination countries until August. Lengthy passport backlogs mean it can take Chinese residents several months just to obtain an appointment for a visa at foreign embassies.
Meanwhile airfares to international destinations are on average 23 percent more expensive than in 2019 due to limited flights, according to ForwardKeys, which is based in Spain. The price hikes are more pronounced for tickets from mainland China to North America, where seat capacity last month was only 10 percent that of October 2019.
Saxon remains hopeful that foreign travel will recover by next year. “There’s been a gradual buildup and there’s no reason to believe that this isn’t going back to 100 per cent. It just takes time,” he says.
Others are less optimistic. The proportion of experienced Chinese travelers with plans to go abroad fell from 64 percent in June to 54 percent in September, according to Oliver Wyman’s surveys, while more said they would wait for at least two years before venturing overseas.
Some obstacles are more long-term. The negative sentiment between China and the West is present in Chinese social media and is affecting travel decisions, says Murray Bailey, editor of the consultancy Travel Business Analyst. “Leisure travel is often called ‘pleasure travel’; if there’s no pleasure, why go?”
The deciding factor in China’s tourism recovery will be the extent of its economic slowdown. Chinese residents now cite income constraints as the top reason for not planning to go abroad, according to a recent report by the marketing firm Dragon Trail International.
“Even though the numbers [of tourists] will come back, the spending might not come back as it was before,” says Oliver Wyman’s Wouters. Economic uncertainty and shrinking wallets are driving Chinese consumers to be more cautious, especially in terms of luxury spending. Given the growing options in luxury retail back home, fewer will drop big bucks abroad, she adds.
This change in consumer behavior may prove a positive eventually. “[Chinese tourists] are not going to spend a lot of money buying luxury products anymore, but they will spend a bit more money on lodging, dining and local experiences,” says George Cao, chief executive of Dragon Trail International. “That’s actually better for the travel industry over the long haul.”
Years ago consumers could only get higher levels of service and unique, diverse experiences abroad. That isn’t the case anymore.
Fritz Demopoulos, co-founder of Chinese travel platform Qunar
While countries such as South Korea and Thailand are still working to relax visa requirements and increase flights, the Chinese travel industry has been beckoning to local holidaymakers — with far more success. Both tourist numbers and spending during the recent Golden Week holiday in early October surpassed 2019 levels, according to data from Oliver Wyman.
Southeast Asian countries used to vie among themselves for visitors from China, says Gary Bowerman, director of tourism intelligence firm Check-In Asia. “Everybody has realized that this year, there’s another competitor — and that’s China.”
Having focused on the domestic population for the past few years, Chinese travel agents and operators understand consumer preferences much better, enabling them to market to potential customers through social media more effectively, Bowerman adds.

“Years ago consumers could only get higher levels of service and unique, diverse experiences abroad,” says Fritz Demopoulos, who co-founded Chinese travel platform Qunar. “That isn’t the case anymore. Chinese tourists now have excellent travel choices within China, which mirror the standards and diversity we’ve seen elsewhere.”
The gambling hub of Macau, for instance, is thriving, buoyed by a new attempt at diversification. Once known only for its glitzy casinos, analysts say the city is starting to draw in younger crowds with concerts, music festivals and other cultural attractions this year. Macau saw 2.3 million visitor arrivals in September, triple that of the same period last year, with tourists from mainland China accounting for nearly 70 percent of them, according to official statistics.
Another hotspot is the southern island of Hainan, which is now flourishing as a tax-free shopping haven for high-rollers alongside its high-end resorts and sandy beaches. In 2021, Hainan authorities estimated its market will grow almost tenfold to reach $46.5 billion in 2025, when the entire province goes duty-free.
DFS Group, the travel retail arm of luxury conglomerate LVMH, recently announced plans to build a seven-star shopping and entertainment complex twice the size of Louvre on the island by 2026. Hainan is poised to be “one of the world’s biggest luxury retail markets in the next five years,” DFS’s chief executive Benjamin Vuchot said in a LinkedIn post.
Experts say the pivot to domestic destinations has caught many countries off guard. “Panic is probably the right word,” Bowerman says.


Concept art for DFS Group’s planned Yalong Bay project in Sanya, Hainan, China. Slated to open by 2026, the complex will span 128,000 square meters. Credit: DFS Group Limited via LinkedIn
Thailand expects the number of arrivals from China to reach 4.4 million this year, only a fraction of the 11 million in 2019. A mall shooting in Bangkok that killed two, including a Chinese national, on October 3 has prompted cancellations and will add another blip to the bumpy road of recovery.
But Thai authorities are confident Chinese tourist numbers will return to pre-pandemic norms by summer next year. “If the Chinese economy recovers, then tourism is likely to rebound favorably,” Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, told The Wire.
Bailey notes that some Asia Pacific destinations traditionally counted as much as half of their annual tourism revenue from Chinese arrivals. “They are suffering greatly,” Bailey says. “For others, say France and the U.S., it will be a much smaller percentage, and so uncomfortable, but not threatening.”
Meanwhile, small businesses and companies such as hotels and airlines are taking a larger — and perhaps lethal — blow. Cao, who runs Dragon Tail, says Chinese consumers are traveling smarter and expecting more. Instead of just ticking off their bucket lists and taking selfies, they are seeking in-depth experiences that they cannot find elsewhere.
“We’re calling this batch of travelers the new Chinese tourists,” Cao says. “This term has been used for many, many years. But I think post-pandemic, this is really where this term is going to hit home in terms of what it really means.”

Rachel Cheung is a staff writer for The Wire China based in Hong Kong. She previously worked at VICE World News and South China Morning Post, where she won a SOPA Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Columbia Journalism Review and The Atlantic, among other outlets.