China told its citizens to raise safety awareness while traveling in the US, state media Xinhua reported on June 4.
“Chinese tourists in the US should fully assess the risks of traveling to the US, keeping up to date with information about public security, laws and regulations, and conscientiously improve awareness to ensure safety,” said the travel advisory, which will remain effective until December 31, 2019.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the advisory for the United States amid heightened trade war tensions between the world's two biggest economies.
Data from the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) of the US found that travel from China to America fell 5.7% in 2018 to 2.9 million visitors. It marked the first time since 2003 that Chinese travel to the U.S. slipped from the year prior, The Associated Press reported.
ChinaTravelNews has learned that the number of passengers carried by major Chinese airlines to the US in January to May this year grew by only 5.59%, much lower than the growth figures in 2017 (14.04%) and 2018 (16.10%).
According to decade-long history data from NTTO, US travel receipt from Chinese travelers grew from USD 6.869 billion in 2009 to USD 36.352 billion in 2018. Before 2017, year-on-year growth rates were all above 10%, with a peak rate of 49% in 2010, but the increase rates were down to just 4% in 2017, and 3% in 2018.
