Holiday cancelled? How the coronavirus is hurting tourism
Al JazeeraWith the health scare forcing Chinese visitors to stay at home, tourism across Asia and beyond is feeling the pain. Thailand, one of the top international destinations for Chinese tourists, stands to lose 109.3 billion Thai baht in tourism revenue due to the virus outbreak, RHB Investment Bank economist Billy Toh said in a report shared with Al Jazeera. Last year, Chinese tourists accounted for 27.6 percent of total visitor arrivals while 28 percent of total tourism receipts were from Chinese tourists, overtaking the European, ASEAN and Japanese tourists, which dominated Thailand’s tourism industry back in 2002,” said Toh, who is based in Kuala Lumpur. “Global tourism, which relies heavily on Chinese tourists, could experience a negative growth of more than 30 percent,” said Iris Pang, ING Wholesale Banking’s economist for Greater China, in a commentary. “Given that Asia-Pacific accounts for almost 80 percent of China’s outbound destination, economies in the region that are reliant on tourism and Chinese tourists – especially Thailand – are expected to see larger downward pressure on economic growth,” said economists Tommy Wu and Louis Kujis of Oxford Economics.