90 million tourists are expected to either visit China or take a trip abroad in 2023, giving the airline industry a welcome boost.
The predication was made in a report by the China Tourism Academy on February 20, 2023, which also focused on China’s domestic tourist market.
Earlier this year China began easing travel restrictions put in place to help reduce the spread of COVID.
This has seen many airline carriers restarting flights to the world’s second biggest economy or increasing the number already in place.
British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss and KLM have all made plans for resuming flights to China or bolstering the existing amount on their schedule.
Reuters reported that the predicted 90 million inbound and outbound tourists will double year-on-year and recover to 31.5% of pre-pandemic levels.
$580.8 billion is predicted to be generated by domestic tourism, with a 95% year-on year increase and achieve 71% of 2019 levels.
Overall, the number of domestic tourists is expected to reach around 4.55 billion
“It is expected that the tourism market will enter a new channel of expected strengthening in the second quarter, and the summer vacation is expected to usher in a full recovery,” the report said.