Asia-Pacific tourism depends heavily on outbound travel from China

Hotel market analysts in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia agree that restrictions on outbound travel from China (PRC) are crippling the tourism economies of the Asia-Pacific region, and that recovery of the sector will likely not occur before 2024.

In 2019, more than 150M Chinese traveled outside China, and accounted for 40% of tourist visitation to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

China's zero-Covid policy restricts residents from traveling abroad, arrivals are subject to strict quarantine, and China's international air capacity has drastically shrunk as a result.

Average daily hotel rates in Asia-Pacific countries averaged only around $50 in August, and many hotel assets have been or will be sold this year or next.