China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued this week a travel advisory that warns Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling to the United States.
Chinese Ministry warned of threats such as robbery and gun violence and China’s foreign ministry also said the US law enforcement agencies have been “harassing” its citizens with interrogation.
Chinese travel to the U.S. has already declined by 5.7% in 2018 from a year earlier, compared with a 4% and 15% increase in 2017 and 2016 respectively, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
U.S. Travel President and CEO Roger Dow issued the following statement on the Chinese government’s warning against travel to the U.S.: “This is something we have seen regularly from the Chinese government, about every six months or so. This move would appear connected to the U.S.-China trade dispute.
“While it’s too early to know the impact this might have on inbound travel from one of our top source markets, announcements such as this can have a chilling effect, so we will continue to monitor travel activity in the China market very closely.
“As we have before, we continue to urge both governments not to politicize travel for the reasons I have stated often: travel is incredibly valuable for both countries in terms of direct commercial activity and business relationships that have a broad downstream economic impact.”
According to China Global Television Network, several Chinese citizens believe that the influence of the travel warning would not last long, and the relations between the two countries will be back to normal in one or two years.
CGTN also reported that Chinese travelers who have been to the U.S., the travel warning by their ministry isn’t very important since the threats are present anywhere, not only the U.S.
