Asian nations have profited handsomely from the impressive growth in tourists from China over the past decade, but the specter of a rapidly spreading virus has raised concerns over industry prospects.
FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2020, file photo, tourists watch a presentation projected on a snow sculpture during the Sapporo Snow Festival at Odori Park in Sapporo, Japan, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020.
A measure of how touchy senior officials have become about the situation was seen Friday in the Thai capital Bangkok, where Public Health Minister Anutin Chanvirakul was overseeing the handout of face masks at a busy station on the sky train elevated transit system. Using the SARS epidemic as a reference point, she noted an initial sharp decline in China’s GDP growth was largely offset by higher growth in the following two quarters, resulting in about 10% annual growth.
“The day that we heard the news , the tourists were gone,” said Arisara Chamsue, who runs a nearby shop. “The number has dropped. And I can only make a tenth or two tenths of what I normally make.” As a regional tourism powerhouse, Thailand has seen its way through many crises. SARS, bird flu, bombs and the 2018 sinking of a yacht off the southern resort island of Phuket that killed 47 Chinese tourists -- they turned out to be blips in a long upward curve.
“It’s not like there are no Chinese at all,” Tomotsugu Mizukami, spokesman for the Kyoto City Tourism Association, said Monday in a telephone interview. “But the effect is clearly visible.” Sales at the Lotte department store in Seoul’s bustling Myeongdong neighborhood on Feb. 1-2, the first weekend after the national Lunar New Year holidays, dropped by 30% compared to the same weekend last year, according to store officials.
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