Skift has looked into the hurdles that several major U.S. cities face in trying to boost tourism — San Francisco and Portland are just two examples.
25.08.2023 - 15:03 / skift.com / Geoff Freeman / Dawit Habtemariam / Chris Thompson / Fred Dixon
In just the past few days, there have been two key moves that ease restrictions for travel from China to the U.S. Tourism officials have been clear that the lifting of these restrictions is critical to a full recovery –though key hurdles remain.
On Thursday, China lifted pandemic-era group tour restrictions for the U.S. and other key markets. Before the lift, Chinese travel agencies were banned from selling outbound group or package travel to the U.S.
And on Friday, the U.S. and Chinese governments agreed to double the number of weekly flights. Starting September 1, 18 weekly flights will be allowed. On October 29, that rises to 24 flights.
China was the U.S.’s top tourist market in terms of spending in 2019, Brand USA CEO Chris Thompson told Skift recently. The U.S. received nearly 3 million Chinese visitors that year, and these visitors spent $35 billion.
The latest moves may help bring them back. There have been only 12 weekly flights between the U.S. and China. Many Chinese travelers have resorted to taking flights from Seoul and Tokyo to get to the U.S., said Thompson. “I think air service out of China is probably still 10% of what it was pre-Covid,” said Thompson. “Even the Chinese that want to travel, they have to go a different way.”
NYC Tourism + Conventions CEO Fred Dixon said dropping the restriction on group tours was “a critical step forward in the market’s eventual comeback.” Dixon called the outbound group travel market the “missing piece” to China’s comeback.
That’s the good news.
But even with the air-service agreement, the number of flights is nowhere near the more than 150 that China and the U.S. had before the pandemic.
There’s also the worsening visa processing delay problem, according to the U.S. Travel Association. On average, Chinese travelers have to wait over four months at U.S. embassies to get an interview for a first-time visitor visa, up from 77 days in March.
“China was a top three market for overseas visitation pre-pandemic, but steadily increasing visa wait times threaten our ability to recapture these highly valuable visitors,” said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman.
China’s economy is also a cause for worry. Unemployment was a record 21% for 16 to 24 year olds in June, and debt levels have risen. Consumers are hoarding cash, according to Reuters. “There are economic concerns in China,” said NYC’s Dixon.
Skift has looked into the hurdles that several major U.S. cities face in trying to boost tourism — San Francisco and Portland are just two examples.
Destination DC will spend nearly $20 million on marketing in an upcoming advertising campaign as the city deals with a slow travel recovery.
International inbound travel to the U.S. is projected to be at 63 percent and 75 percent of its pre-pandemic volume in 2022 and 2023, respectively, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s biannual forecast. At this rate, international travel won’t reach pre-pandemic levels until 2025.
The U.S. Travel Association has launched a website to highlight the negative impact of long visitor visa interview wait times—which now exceed an average of 400 days—is having on global travelers and U.S. businesses. Called USVisaDelays.com, the website lists stories of those affected, loss in industry spending, visitor wait times, impacted markets and a policy fact sheet.
The pre-Covid world where people could move (relatively) freely across borders for leisure, information, education and work won’t be coming back next year, as the West will continue to shut out millions of people from Africa, Asia and Latin America due to the slow return of their visa processing staff.
The number of international visitors to the U.S. reached 4.6 million in November, up 61 percent year over year, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office. November’s volume represented 76 percent of pre-pandemic November 2019’s.
Travel search volume in the Asia Pacific region rose over 50 percent year over year in the fourth quarter last year, according to Expedia Group. The region’s strong performance led global travel search volume, which rose by 10 percent year over year.
While Chinese travel demand accelerates to pre-pandemic levels, the global tourism industry is still not fully ready to service it, according to some panelists this week at an ITB Berlin session titled “Outlook of Chinese Tourism Market 2023.”
New York’s tourism industry has roared back from its rough pandemic years, but local pessimism and empty offices could hamper the sector’s long-term trajectory.
Japan is having trouble servicing tourists arriving from abroad due to staffing shortages, amid surging demand for its historically popular cherry blossom season.
Expedia Group Media Solutions, Expedia’s travel advertising division, has released a new media platform that allows travelers to shop and book travel as they watch content. One of its first partners will be Brand USA, the U.S.’s national tourism marketing agency.
Brazil’s plan is to reinstate tourist visa requirements for the the U.S., Japan, Australia and Canada will reduce tourism from those markets and make the country a less competitive destination. The reinstated visa application procedure details haven’t yet been announced.