{"id":31297,"date":"2026-02-24T16:44:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31297"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:44:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:44:36","slug":"chinese-tourism-to-japan-plunges-50-over-lunar-new-year-as-thailand-cashes-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31297","title":{"rendered":"Chinese tourism to Japan plunges 50% over Lunar New Year as Thailand cashes in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/02\/24\/8d84ea1f-55ec-416c-b024-0c83f3a85a40_e25c429a.jpg?itok=PwAy3sdO&amp;v=1771913063\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Thailand led the list of destinations for Chinese tourists travelling overseas during this year\u2019s extended Lunar New Year holiday, as former favourite Japan saw arrivals plummet amid a political dispute with China over Taiwan.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Southeast Asian nation saw roughly 250,000 arrivals from China during the holiday, which ran from February 15 to 23, according to the travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">This year\u2019s Lunar New Year holiday was expected to be a key period for global travel operators. China has one of the largest outbound travel markets in the world \u2013 <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">worth an estimated US$140 billion<\/span> in 2024, according to HSBC \u2013 and the public holiday ran for an unusually long nine days in 2026.<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Those efforts appeared to pay off. The number of Chinese travellers visiting Thailand rose by 60,000 compared with last year\u2019s holiday, according to China Trading Desk, helping Bangkok beat its <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">forecast of 241,000 arrivals<\/span> from China between February 13 and 22.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Thailand became one of the first countries eligible to receive Chinese tour groups more than two decades ago, and it has remained a popular destination ever since due to its beaches, low prices and proximity to China.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThailand has always been a favourite for Chinese, but it had taken a hit because of safety issues,\u201d said China Trading Desk CEO Subramania Bhatt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3344421\/chinese-tourism-japan-plunges-50-over-lunar-new-year-thailand-cashes?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thailand led the list of destinations for Chinese tourists travelling overseas during this year\u2019s extended Lunar New Year holiday, as former favourite Japan saw arrivals&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[16506,107,2251,13821,16505,1745,5058,791],"class_list":["post-31297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-cashes","tag-chinese","tag-japan","tag-lunar","tag-plunges","tag-thailand","tag-tourism","tag-year","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}