Originally Posted by
mlin32
I think a lot of the problem stems from the fact that mainland China was the last of the major markets to open up, and thus people already booked their Asian holidays to other places like Thailand, Japan, etc.....
That's part of the reason. Other reasons I can think of
- China to say it lightly is not treated well in the global press, so people are generally not interested. Includes sentiment about government, HK, etc
- A lot of expats who lived in China left and told their friends not to go
- Students who left China for winter break in the beginning of 2020 largely got stuck outside for years so they told their friends not to go
- Visa requirement deters a lot of people. India gave visa on arrival to US citizens at the end of 2014. Brazil was eVisa/visa free for US citizens for the Olympics and from 2018 to end of September 2023.
- Quarantine requirement during COVID was viewed as overly harsh especially after other countries dropped theirs a long time ago
- Chinese people who live overseas were also not super enthusiastic about the quarantine and many of my friends visited China for the first time this year since 2019
I do NOT think that language barrier, Alipay/WeChat, real name verification, needing a phone number, firewall, foreigners can’t stay at hotel are a problem. All of these other reasons come before that