{"id":11521,"date":"2024-07-01T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendywutours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11521"},"modified":"2024-07-04T16:42:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T15:42:43","slug":"how-china-finally-bounced-back-after-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendywutours.co.uk\/blog\/china\/how-china-finally-bounced-back-after-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"How China finally bounced back after the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“How China finally bounced<\/a> back after the pandemic”<\/a> was originally published on 1 July 2024 on telegraph.co.uk <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With a surge in demand seeing new holiday itineraries abound, the Middle Kingdom is now firmly back on the travel map.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic impacted tourism around the world, but possibly nowhere more than in\u00a0China<\/a>. By 2022, direct airline seat capacity from the country to the UK was down 97 per cent on pre-pandemic levels according to data from Visit Britain. The country remained effectively closed to foreign travellers until spring 2023, when it began reissuing visas to tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after Covid restrictions were lifted, international visitors stayed away. \u201cPeople in north and western countries see China differently post-pandemic,\u201d says Prof Sam Huang, who heads the SBL Centre for Tourism Research at Australia\u2019s Edith Cowan University. \u201cAccording to some global surveys, they now have a negative image of China \u2013 that may be one issue at play\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Take the train up onto the Tibetan plateau on our Tibetan Railroad tour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As memories of Covid lockdowns become hazier however, interest in the country appears to be returning. International visitors roughly tripled year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, thanks in part to a 15-day visa waiver scheme for tourists from 14 countries (though not those from the UK) scheduled to last until at least the end of November 2024. Meanwhile, British tourists no longer have to give fingerprints in order to get a visa for mainland China, though this is subject to review at the end of the year. \u201cThe Chinese government\u00a0is doing its best to attract foreign visitors to its country,\u201d says Huang. \u201cI sense some optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a similar mood amongst tour operators. \u201cDemand levels for us right now are more than quadruple what they were last year, which is taking us back to the level where we were in 2019,\u201d says Peter Crane, global product director at\u00a0Wendy Wu Tours<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is introducing new itineraries to tie in with increased interest, including a\u00a0Tibetan Railroad<\/a> trip\u00a0with time on the world\u2019s highest railway, trundling up to 5,072 metres in carriages pumped with oxygen as the dramatic landscapes of the Tibetan Plateau reveal themselves outside. Two other new journeys include time in Zhangjiajie<\/a>, a landscape of soaring rock formations topped with forests which featured in the film\u00a0Avatar<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary place \u2013 hundreds and hundreds of these dramatic sandstone blocks that rise up from the jungle, topped by more jungle. The infrastructure that the Chinese have built around there is really impressive. Not everybody will love it but there are glass bridges where you can walk across a 1,000-metre-high canyon. There\u2019s a glass platform that you can walk around the edge of the cliff and a glass elevator which is the world\u2019s highest and fastest outdoor one,\u201d says Crane.

Building on an increased network of high-speed train services, the company has also dispensed with flights for journeys of two hours or less, in favour of rail travel. \u201cThe way the infrastructure has moved on in the last few years is unbelievable to witness,\u201d notes Crane. \u201cThe train stations are as big and futuristic as airport terminals and there are 20,000 kilometres of bullet train tracks.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other operators to have launched new trips is\u00a0Viking, which will run three ocean voyages in the country on its ship the Viking Yi Dun, from September 2024. This ship is the first focused on domestic sailings in China for international travellers, and its voyages are proving so popular that the company has already launched a\u00a0Mongolia\u00a0add-on so customers can lengthen stays in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The otherwordly landscapes of Zhangjiajie feature on two new tours to China<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n


And it\u2019s not just operators backing tourism in China. Big hotel chains are opening outposts too.\u00a0IHG, the group behind the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Indigo brands amongst others, has rapidly expanded its offering in the country over recent years, opening 600 hotels in the space of 15 years \u2013 100 of them within the last 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China may have taken its sweet time to reopen itself to the outside world \u2013 and international visitors may likewise have taken their time to return \u2013 but it seems that slowly, as old air routes reopen and logistical problems ease, the appeal of the holiday to China is firmly back on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n

Order your brochure today<\/h2><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“How China finally bounced back after the pandemic” was originally published on 1 July 2024 on telegraph.co.uk With a surge in demand seeing new holiday itineraries abound, the Middle Kingdom is now firmly back on the travel map. The pandemic impacted tourism around the world, but possibly nowhere more than in\u00a0China. By 2022, direct airline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow China finally bounced back after the pandemic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fully re-opened after the global pandemic, China is back, stronger than ever and a firm fixture on the bucketlists of international travellers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendywutours.co.uk\/blog\/china\/how-china-finally-bounced-back-after-the-pandemic\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How China finally bounced back after the pandemic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fully 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