Why Hasn't the U.S. Made a Full Tourism Recovery?
25.08.2023 - 13:11
/ skift.com
/ Edward Russell
/ Rashaad Jorden
/ Chris Thompson
/ Ask Skift
The U.S. travel industry has made tremendous progress in its recovery from the pandemic. Bookings for hotels, car rentals and tour activities have risen almost 30% from last year for travel between between Memorial Day and Labor Day — numbers that are expected to increase, according to travel organization AAA.
However, the industry is struggling to fully recover in other important ways. Why? Ask Skift, our artificial intelligence chatbot, provided answers to the question, using information appearing in our daily news coverage, Skift Research and Airline Weekly.
Here are the responses Ask Skift produced, as well as what else you need to know.
Ask Skift said:
The U.S. tourism industry heavily relies on the influx of Chinese visitors. Prior to the pandemic, China was the U.S.’s fourth top market, having sent over 2.3 million tourists in 2019. Although China fully reopened its borders earlier this year after more than two years of restrictions, U.S. destinations have not seen Chinese tourists return in serious numbers. In fact, from May 2022 through April 2023, the U.S. welcomed over 540,000 Chinese travelers, which was an 81% drop from the same month in 2019. This significant decrease in Chinese tourists has hindered the U.S.’s tourism recovery.
What else you need to know:
Brand USA CEO and President Chris Thompson said at a U.S. Senate hearing this June that unless the country sees a large-scale return of Chinese tourists, it won’t fully recover from the pandemic. U.S. destination marketing organizations have unveiled plans to increase marketing in China later this year as part of their strategy to boost visitor numbers from the country.
However, Global Tourism Reporter Dawit Habtemariam wrote the success of those efforts depend on the U.S. and China restoring flight schedules between the two countries to pre-pandemic levels. Twenty-four flights currently operate weekly between the U.S. and China — down from about 350 per week prior to the pandemic.
The flight limits have remained in place largely due to strained U.S.-China relations. Edward Russell, editor of Skift publication Airline Weekly, reported in June a sticking point between U.S. and China was Chinese airlines’ use of Russian airspace for U.S. flights. American carriers are prohibited from flying over Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Another issue is thatvisa applications by Chinese citizens are still well below pre-pandemic levels even after Beijing announced late last year it was lifting travel restrictions. Specialist visa firm VFS Global revealed visa application volumes from China this year had only hit 35% of pre-Covid levels by May compared to the same period in 2019.
In addition, more than half of Chinese