United States: More continental Chinese tourists are preparing to travel abroad in the coming months and next year in hopes of further easing COVID-19 controls on mass movements, according to a recent survey. However, the US has become less of a popular travel destination.
Morning Consult, a US-based business intelligence firm, surveyed 1,000 adults in a representative sample in August. Between April and July, there was a 23 percent increase in the proportion of people with travel plans who said they would or could travel abroad in the coming year.
Now, one in five Chinese adults report that they "definitely" plan to travel abroad. But unlike before the coronavirus pandemic, the United States would not be a top choice.
The report concluded that fears of violent crime, including mass shootings, "scare" the Chinese more than other potentially preventable concerns such as COVID-19 risks, costs and deteriorating US-China relations.
In the years before the pandemic, China accounted for about a fifth of all international tourism spending. China was the third largest source of foreign visitors to mainland America.
According to research by Morning Consult, Chinese tourists currently express less interest in traveling to the US than many other places, especially Europe, where 54% of Chinese tourists are interested in traveling as opposed to only 35% of Americans . The study found that "the majority of Chinese are not interested in traveling to the United States."
According to Scott Moskowitz, a geopolitical risk analyst at Morning Consult and one of the report's authors, "an outside Chinese media coverage of US gun violence and mass shootings in particular," is driving these fears.
"People give violent crime a reason not to travel to the United States," he said, referring to people seeing, reading, or hearing about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Is.
In Uvalde, Texas, where Latinos make up the majority of the local population, an elementary school was shot at on May 24 that killed 19 children and two adults.
Violence against ethnic minorities is increasing in America. According to a compilation of hate crimes committed against Asian Americans by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism published in February, Asian hate crimes nationwide increased by 339 percent between 2020 and 2021.
For well-known tourist destinations such as New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, sharp growth was recorded. The total number of hate crimes reported to the police in important US cities increased by 11%.
Anti-Asian hate crime cases in New York City increased by 343 percent, from 30 to 133. Of these, 60 crimes were reported in San Francisco compared to 9 in 2020, while in Los Angeles, the percentage increased from 89 to 177.5%. , 247.
A group called Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks nonviolent hate crimes against Asian Americans, reported that there were 11,500 incidents between March 2020 and March 2022, according to its most recent study.
According to the report, "two out of three" cases "involved harassment, such as verbal or written hate speech or inappropriate gestures."
Unlike 60% who said that violent crimes such as shootings "are a major concern that will deter them," only 43% of those willing to go to the US said that anti-China bias is a major concern that should prompt them to reconsider travel. should inspire. , should inspire. , will force.
According to the report, the tourism industry could "double the safety-related messages in marketing campaigns aimed at Chinese consumers" despite the fact that not much can be done to influence how the Chinese media covered the US. Is. Is. was.
It continued, "America's epidemic of gun violence shows no signs of slowing down and will therefore continue to deter potential tourists."
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