Vietnam absent from top winter destinations for Chinese tourists: Airbnb

Japan came second on the list of 20 most searched countries by Chinese tourists for 2023-2024 winter holidays.

The statistics come from searches on the Airbnb platform by mainland China users from Jan. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2023. The searches were for winter outbound stays with check-in dates between Dec. 22. 2023 and Feb. 29, 2024.

New Zealand ranked third, followed by Australia, and the U.S.

Thailand is not the only Southeast Asian representative in the list, as Malaysia and Indonesia also appeared at sixth and seventh places.

The U.K. was in eighth position, followed by Norway and South Korea.

"Thailand has been a popular destination among Chinese guests on Airbnb. We are thrilled with the Thai government's announcement of a permanent visa waiver for citizens of both countries from next March, further boosting inbound tourism to Thailand," Amanpreet Bajaj, Airbnb's General Manager for Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, said in a statement.

Thailand expected to welcome five million Chinese arrivals last year but fell short of its target with only 3.51 million out of a total of 28 million arrivals.

Before the Covid pandemic, Chinese tourists were the biggest market for both Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2019, over 11 million Chinese tourists visited Thailand, accounting for more than a quarter of its total foreign arrivals while Vietnam received 5.5 million Chinese tourists that year.

The number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam dropped to 1.74 million last year.