Coronavirus epidemic hurts neighboring countries' travel industries

Coronavirus epidemic hurts neighboring countries' travel industries

Spending the Chinese Lunar New Year traveling was predicted by Ctrip, China's main online travel agency, as the most noticeable trend for Chinese people this year. However, that was before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) hit the city of Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province and rapidly started spreading across the rest of the country and the world.

In an effort to contain the spread of the epidemic, China tightened control of its outbound tourism by banning tour groups to overseas destinations and urged its citizens to cancel all but essential journeys.

"Tourism is vulnerable to the effects of public health emergencies and is already being affected by the outbreak," said the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). With China being the largest source market of global tourism, the decline in Chinese tourists has posed great challenges to many countries and regions.

The neighboring countries of Japan, Thailand and Singapore were listed as the most popular short-haul destinations for Chinese tourists during the holiday, as shown by statistics from Ctrip. Here's how the coronavirus outbreak has impacted the tourism sector of these countries.