by: Juergen T Steinmetz | copyright: eTurboNews | Tourism News – Tourism Industry News
The virus has swept through the cities in China, leaving behind an awful number of corpses, but also streets and shopping malls full of people again.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) sees no danger for visitors to travel to China
Estimates already see more than 228 million Chinese travelers by the year 2030 on planes, trains and automobiles.
Borders opened a few weeks ago for many Chinese visitors, while some countries only opened such borders half way.
Chinese were the most numerous and highest-spending visitors for many Asian nations.
Currently COVID is still spreading like wildfire in the Peoples Republic
According to German Researcher Professor George Arlt, the grim reaper is now continuing his work in the countryside and it is pure guesswork at the moment if the total number of victims will be rather three or ten millions Chinese, most of them 60+ years of age.
In China, everything happens later, but faster, so that by the end of the quarter, China will be the last country in the world learning to live with the virus.
Everywhere people would claim that we enter the Rabbit Year, when in fact this is only half of the name and makes in Chinese astrology as much sense as mentioning as the result of a football game only how many goals one of the teams scored.
After decade of spin doctors in Mainland China pushing the idea that we do not enjoy Chinese New Year celebrations, but the less backward-sounding “Spring Festival”, even most Chinese believe this. In fact, the spring festival is the first of the 24 solar terms, celebrated always when it begins on Feb. 4th.
Arlt explains:
On top of all that nonsense is the statement that this is the Lunar New Year, when it is not. China has a lunisolar calendar, which in this year again features a leap month to keep the start of the new year in winter. That would never be the case with a lunar calendar, like Muslims use it.
It is heart-breaking to see how in modern China the traditional Chinese culture is vulgarized and has been emptied of the original meaning, similar to the switch from the manger to the department store as the symbol of Christmas.
Never mind, there are still sources left to provide the facts, information and insights you need and the 2023 Handbook is one of them.
Gary Bowerman and your humble editor started to work on the publication last summer, expecting China to open up again in early 2023, and lo and behold, on February 6th, 2023, the ban imposed on group travel on January 24th, 2020, will fall.
The research book can be downloaded as a PDF here.
Professors Georg Arlt runs the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute is a member of the World Tourism Network, and a frequent contributor for eTurboNews.
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