A wave of discrimination against Chinese in the US will eventually cut 10 percent of the country’s tourism revenue in the first quarter, while rocking US foundations in all possible spheres, experts said Monday.
The comment came as China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued an advisory the same day, asking Chinese tourists not to travel to the US due to US excessive epidemic control measures and its domestic security situations which results in Chinese tourists being treated unfairly.
Tourism industry insiders said this is one of only a few times that Chinese authorities abruptly issued such a warning on traveling to the US in recent years, underscoring the severity of the issue.
In June 2019, China also issued a similar alert over travel to the US to counter the negative consequences Chinese people are facing after the escalation of the US-initiated trade war, which spread beyond broad economic measures to target the technology, education and tourism sectors.
“More Chinese will avoid traveling to the US after the latest warning. So the effect of the warning on the US tourism industry will become more evident in the second quarter, because it usually takes one to two months for Chinese to apply for US visas and book tours,” Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at China’s CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Monday.
“Such an effect will still exist even after the coronavirus fades away,” Xu said.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, bullying and assaults of Asian faces have emerged from the US, to Italy, to Germany. Reuters reported on February 14 that “a flier in Los Angeles’ Carson area, with a fake seal of the World Health Organization, tells residents to avoid Asian-American businesses.”
The warning was issued at a time when abuses are also becoming increasingly violent in the US, and worrying many Chinese tourists, observers said.
Connecting with previous US travel warnings to its people to China and restrictions on Chinese tourists’ entry into the US, Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Relations of Renmin University of China said that since the US didn’t achieve its target of containing China by launching a trade war, it again acts toward decoupling with China amid the outbreak by taking extreme measures against China.
Last week the US put restrictions designed for diplomats on five Chinese media organizations.
The US aims to dent China by taking every possible opportunity. But rejecting and abusing Chinese can’t help solve problems, Wang said, noting that racism against Chinese would in turn hit the US economy.
CYTS has halted its travel services to the US since January 25. As virtually no Chinese tourists traveled to the US during and after the Spring Festival holidays, Xu said the diminishing numbers could wipe out 10 percent from US tourism revenue in the first quarter.
Song Ding, a research fellow at the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, told the Global Times that the US tourism market may not recover during the rest of 2020 from the fallout of racism.
Xu warned about a chain reaction on Chinese investment in the US and people-to-people exchanges between China and the US.
“The first quarter is generally an important season for Chinese students to apply to US universities. It is likely that Chinese students will choose to study somewhere else, as they realize they could be discriminated on US campuses,” Xu added.
Global luxury brands will also bear the brunt if fewer Chinese travel overseas. Pauline Brown, former chairman of LVMH North America, told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that 2020 will be a “disaster” for many luxury brands as sales within China are declining. Chinese consumers account for around 35 percent of global total luxury spending, with much spent while traveling overseas.
A large group of local Chinese participates in the 88th annual Hollywood Christmas Parade, with two dancing golden dragons on December 1. Hollywood began celebrating the Christmas season as the parade moves through the Hollywood Boulevard on December 1. Photos: Yu Yan
