were among the best-travelled in the world. They collectively spent more than US$250 billion abroad - nearly twice as much as their nearest competitors, the Americans - and logged more than 150 million departures on international flights that year.
, lost US$7.1 billion in the first six months of 2023; investors concerned about potential debt default have sent its stock plummeting., posted a US$4.5 billion loss over the same period and sought bankruptcy protection in the US last month. It gained international attention in 2021 after it defaulted on US$300 billion of debt, sparking the current crisis.
In July, new home sales from China’s top 100 developers were down 33 per cent from the previous year. Prices are slumping, too. As of April, Chinese tourism to Japan was down some 85 per cent since 2019, even though overall visits to Japan had rebounded to 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Chinese tourism to popular European destinations such as France, Switzerland, Greece and Spain has also fallen sharply.