SYDNEY: When China ended a lengthy border closure in January, e-commerce marketer Tianni Ren immediately began planning a team building trip for her 14 staff to Australia, hoping to see its stunning pink salt lakes that had captivated her on social media.
"We asked our tour agent but were told that Australia was not on the group tour list," said Ren, 28, referring to the Approved Destination Status that China gives some 60 other countries."It is a pity that we did not get to see the pink lakes." In February, the first full month since China's border reopened, Australia recorded 40,430 short-term visitors from China, government data showed. That was one-fifth the number who visited in the same month in the record year of 2019 and well behind visits from New Zealand, the UK and the US.
At the same time, total Chinese outbound border crossings had reached two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute, a consulting group based in Germany.
In any case, why visit a hostile nation?