Tourism is finally getting the shot in the arm for which it has waited so long, with all that pent-up demand for travel already beginning to unleash itself. So stow those table trays, and prepare for an Australian and German invasion!
Eager holidaymakers wasted no time yesterday as the news spread like wildfire that after almost 3 years, quarantine would no longer be required for passengers inbound to China. Yesterday morning, 27 December, saw them responsible for an enormous surge in outbound air ticket sales.
Online-travel agent, Ctrip, released sales’ data which showed a 254 percent increase in sales for international tickets compared to the day before.
As to the most popular destinations, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand round out the top five. Among these, demand for Singapore is greatest, with a 600 percent growth in sales.
Surprisingly, the explosive growth has not also brought with it a surge in prices. With the exception of Thailand, tickets to the aforementioned destinations saw their prices tumble yesterday, by between 28 and 47 percent.
For other, less popular destinations, the drop in average-ticket prices has been less pronounced, at 12.9 percent on the previous month. A report by The Paper has a Ctrip official saying a possible reason for the reduced prices is domestic airlines’ recent increased capacity for such short-haul outbound flights.
The same is not true, however, for popular draws further afield. Demand for tickets to long-haul destinations in the UK, USA and Australia has also increased, but prices remain relatively stable.
Going in the other direction, there has been an even greater surge in demand for China-inbound tickets.
Overall, Ctrip recorded a 412 percent growth in sales for tickets into China yesterday over 26 December. That’s 1.6 times more than the spike in sales of outbound tickets. Those tickets are costing a bit more than before, though, with an average increase in price of 8.6 percent month on month.
Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong are the top five origins of inbound travellers. Among them, orders for tickets from Australia and Germany have soared by 800 percent, far exceeding the remaining three Asian tourist sources.
The upshot of it all is that we will be seeing significantly more foreign faces in our midst next month. Time in particular, then, to brush up on our, “G’day, mate”, and, “Guten tag. Wie gehts?”.
