China, tourism for which has always been a significant part, is facing a dropdown in tourism now. It has always contributed to the Chinese economy and help China grow but the current scenario is different from what it has been in the past.
Now that tourism is being affected, will the economy have a major impact on it?
As of 2015, China was the fourth most visited country in the world followed by France, the United States and Spain. China welcomed 56.9 million international tourists per year. But with the recent economic conflict between China and the USA have had an impact on the tourism ratio for China. The USA has always been a very important market for China. The number of inbound American tourists to China rose by 24% between 2009 and 2012.
What Exactly Is The China-US Trade-war
As we all know, the US and China are the world’s two largest economies. Where the US has a larger nominal GDP, China as the world’s largest exporter has already overtaken America becoming the country with the larger GDP when measured in terms of PPP.
In 1984, the US became China’s third-largest trading partner and that made China, America’s 14th largest. The US imports from China almost doubled from 1996 to 2001 ($51.5 billion to $102 billion).
China and the US are caught in the race on imposing tariffs on each other!
What Started The Trade War?
On the 2016 presidential campaign trail in America, the Americans started to see some major changes in the thought process. From then on, the US trade representatives started investigating China’s economic practices to check if China has ever done anything that would harm America’s economic interests.
China’s GDP market growth prices had been really slow in the past. In 1978 the GDP market price was just 6% of Americas and last year it grew to 66%. If we consider the local spending power, China has already overtaken America.
In 2001, China joined the world trade organisation after which China became an economic superpower. Although the US claims that the growth China has achieved is not fair.
But How True Are Those Claims?
Beijing Bureau Chief, David Rennie in an interview with The Economist said that China hasn’t been playing fair in 2 ways:
” China is baised towards the Chinese companies. If a western company is planning to get established in China, it’s chinese competetor will definately have a better access to the market.
The other is that China has been stealing technology fro the foreign companies. In China defence, the US steals too but US argues saying they don’t do it for commercial purposes. “
The US under Trumph’s administration has been using tariffs and imported goods. This according to them is a way to force the Chinese to change their ways. In 2018, Americans imposed 25% of tariffs on Chinese products worth $ 34 Billion.
How Trade-War Is Impacting Tourism
The trade war is hurting the tourism industry in China slowly and steadily. Surely the US too would be getting affected by it but no one is talking about it. The question that arises is WHY?
A few facts that show that tourism is facing a dropdown because of the war:
- There is a 42% decrease seen in the flight bookings from China to the US in the peak season called the “Golden Week”.
- The escalating war and the fluctuation in the currency exchange lead to a fall of 6.2% of the number of tourists from short-haul destinations.
- Visits from China to New Zealand also fell by 21%. Situations like these are leading to slow down the economic growth of China.
The question arises; how much time will China take to revive from these loses? Please leave your thought in the comments section below.
