Chinese tourists explore alternative destinations

Chinese social media platform RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, has seen a flurry of posts from Chinese netizens asking for suggestions and seeking alternative overseas destinations, amid the China-Japan rift over the past few weeks.

The answers range from South Korea, Dubai and Australia to Russia, Turkiye, and Southeast Asia. Some even said they would go to Europe instead.

As Chinese tourists look for alternatives amid the China-Japan rift, other destinations in Asia are seeing opportunities, according to travel industry insiders.

Among them, the main beneficiaries are South Korea and a cluster of Southeast Asian destinations, said Subramania Bhatt, founder and CEO of market researcher China Trading Desk.

"South Korea has now moved into the top spot as the most popular overseas destination for Chinese travelers on several major platforms, with strong demand for Seoul and Jeju," Bhatt told China Daily.

Meanwhile, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam are also seeing higher search volumes and booking levels from China compared with before the Japan advisory, said Bhatt, noting the increase is often in the low double-digit percentage range week-on-week.

"For winter and spring trips, we also see some niche rerouting into Russia, especially from travelers who originally looked at Hokkaido for snow and winter scenery," he said.

On Nov 14, China's Foreign Ministry issued an advisory to citizens that they should avoid traveling to Japan due to security concerns. The notice came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's provocative remarks on the Taiwan question.

The number of Chinese tourists to Japan has since dropped rapidly. According to data from the flight travel app Umetrip, over 40 percent of the scheduled flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan were canceled in December, with the number of canceled flights exceeding 1,900.

With the number of Chinese tourists to Japan reaching 7.5 million in the first three quarters of 2025, other destinations in the region are benefiting amid Chinese travelers opting for alternative countries, said Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO of China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, or COTRI, and executive director of the Meaningful Tourism Centre, a nonprofit organization focused on sustainable tourism.

"There will be a shift not only to South Korea but also to other destinations, in ASEAN and other regional destinations," Arlt told China Daily, referring to the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Customized products

The South Korean government is actively working to attract Chinese tourists by developing customized tourism products, said An Yong-ju, a former professor of global leisure and tourism at South Korea's Sun Moon University.

The optimism is also driven by the improvement in bilateral ties after a recent meeting of the top leaders of the two nations, which could potentially lead to a resurgence of Chinese tourists to South Korea, An said.

Meanwhile, South Korean airlines are also increasing their flights connecting China, with Asiana Airlines operating 165 weekly flights by March, a 20 percent increase in capacity, according to The Korea Times.

An said the South Korean government should focus on relaxing visa policies, enhancing mutual cultural exchanges, and addressing hate crimes against foreigners to build a sustainable Chinese tourist market. The tourism industry, meanwhile, should develop value-added offerings other than shopping-focused products.

In Malaysia, there has also been a clear increase in Chinese tourist arrivals in recent weeks, said Uzaidi Udanis, founder of Your Inbound Matters, a professional platform for Malaysian inbound tourism.

"Part of this uplift appears to coincide with the period of the China-Japan rift," said Uzaidi, who is the former president of the Malaysia Tourism Council. He also cited factors, including the free visa policy and improved flight connectivity.

Noting there were around 600,000 to 700,000 Chinese tourists visiting Japan monthly during peak seasons, Uzaidi told China Daily that the Malaysian travel and tourism industry hopes to secure at least 5 percent of that market, meaning an additional 30,000 Chinese visitors to Malaysia in December.

As the Chinese New Year holiday is approaching in February, Bhatt from the China Trading Desk said the platform already saw forward bookings from China to Japan for January and February departures running roughly 40-50 percent below the normally expected level.

He said the trend could be more than just a short-term shift if the travel warnings do not ease quickly, and it could be an opportunity for Southeast Asia and broader Asia to capture a larger structural share of Chinese outbound demand.

Prime Sarmiento contributed to this story.

kelly@chinadailyapac.com