Pandemic's effects to linger over inbound tourism: Report

The nation's inbound tourism market has been severely hit by novel coronavirus pneumonia this year, and industry insiders are pessimistic about the prospects for recovery in the coming six months, according to a newly released report by the World Tourism Alliance.

Citing a survey result, the international non-governmental organization focusing on tourism based in Xiaoshan, East China's Zhejiang province, found that over 80 percent of the surveyed said that the negative influence brought by the pandemic will linger over the inbound tourism market for four months, while about 7 percent of the surveyed think the time period will last over 12 months.

The survey was done with 1,058 questionnaires collected from travel agency managers and tourism industry insiders across the country by March 2.

About 78 percent of the surveyed believed that the novel coronavirus will bring more severe results to inbound tourism than the SARS epidemic back in 2003. Ten percent said they have not experienced SARS and were unable to make comparison, 10 percent believed the impact of the two diseases will be similar and only 2 percent said the novel coronavirus will bring less harm to the inbound market than SARS.

Those surveyed agreed that the inbound tourism market will take a longer time to recover than domestic tourism, allowing for the outbreak in some foreign countries and regions such as Italy, South Korea and Iran, and the World Health Organization declared it as pandemic.

The main reason lies in the ever-opening economy, which has welcomed more international visits and cooperation than in 2003, it said.

What's worse is that the confidence of travel agencies and industry insiders to resume inbound tourism this year is thwarted. They predict inbound visits, average expenses and inbound tourism revenue will experience declines due to the population flow control and changes in international flights.