Is it Time to Rethink Chinese New Year Tourism Marketing?

Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, Lunisolar New Year, Spring Festival and Tet – this week's show talks all things travel for the upcoming holiday. In recent years, Chinese New Year brought a welcome surge of inbound visitors from China into ASEAN, and stimulated strong intra-regional and domestic trip volumes. This year, CNY is a purely homegrown travel scenario. In some countries - like Malaysia - inter-state travel is not even permitted, while COVID-19 infection spikes are impacting domestic travel in Thailand, Vietnam and China. Confidence in travel across the region may be at its lowest point since the pandemic struck - for what is normally a joyful and vibrant time to take a vacation. As South East Asia confronts a second consecutive CNY under the shadow of COVID-19, should travel marketers rethink their approach to public holiday tourism in future? Plus, will shifting societal factors in China impact the future flow of CNY visitors into ASEAN and other Asia Pacific destinations?