A tourist poses for photos in a lavender field in Sigong Village, Huocheng County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2023. Sigong Village has planted 12,000 mu (about 800 hectares) of lavender. The lavender planting bases here have helped promote local tourism and the lavender processing industry. In 2022, per capita income in Sigong Village reached 22,000 yuan (about 3,080 US dollars). Photo: Xinhua

China's outbound tourism has continued to recover, with 593,100 tourists departing from the capital city of Beijing in July. The rebound in outbound tourism is contributing to the stable recovery of the international aviation sector.

In July, a total of 6,436 flights arrived or departed Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport, exceeding 200 flights a day for the first time in nearly three years, Beijing Daily reported. A total of 1.16 million passengers arrived or departed the two airports, exceeding 1 million for the first time also in nearly three years, it said. 

The number of outbound tourists increased notably, with 593,100 departing from the capital city, up 38.75 percent month-on-month, according to the media report.

The surge in outbound tourism is helping drive the recovery of the international aviation sector. In Germany, Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport said on Tuesday that its 2023 core profit would hit the upper half of its forecast range after second-quarter earnings were boosted by strong travel demand, Reuters reported.

Frankfurt Airport finance chief Matthias Zieschang forecast a "huge and significant" increase in Chinese passengers traveling to and from Frankfurt in 2024, with capacity set to reach 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels by December from under 40 percent in the second quarter this year, said the report.

In addition, the Tourism Authority of Thailand aims to capitalize on the rising number of travelers, particularly from China, India and other ASEAN countries. 

To cater to the growing demand, Thai Lion Air is set to resume six daily flights from Bangkok to various Chinese cities, including Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, and Shanghai, according to media reports.

In the first half of 2023, outbound tourism destinations received 40.37 million arrivals from the Chinese mainland, with 93.9 percent of the tourists concentrated in touring in Asia, according to data released by the China Tourism Academy on July 30.

Regions including the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the island of Taiwan were among the top destinations for Chinese mainland tourists. 

Thailand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea were also popular, the report showed.

International passenger traffic in June bounced back to 41.6 percent of the same period in 2019, the report said, citing data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

On Tuesday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the post-COVID recovery momentum continued in June for passenger markets. In June, global traffic stood at 94.2 percent of pre-Covid-19 levels, and for the first half of 2023, total traffic was up 47.2 percent compared to the year-ago period, it said.

It said Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East led the recovery, while Latin America, Europe and North America reported relatively weak growth, according to the association.

Global Times