Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, bustles with crowds, on January 29, 2026. Following the recent Nipah virus outbreak in West Bengal, India, Thailand has strengthened airport health screening measures for passengers arriving from the region. Photo: IC

Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia stood as the top three outbound destinations for Chinese travelers during the just-concluded nine-day Spring Festival holiday that ended on Monday, industry information provider Flight Master told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The platform said that, comparing with pre-pandemic year of 2019, the recovery rate for flights to South Korea has reached 96.5 percent, while that for flights to Japan was only 58.3 percent.

In addition, Flight Master said that flights to Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Russia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Laos, the United Kingdom, Italy, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and Qatar all saw recovery rates exceeding 100 percent.

The data is also echoed with data provided by another travel platform Qunar, which said on Monday that Thailand has reclaimed its spot as the most popular outbound destination for Chinese tourists now. 

The top 10 most popular cities for Chinese travelers are Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Bali Island, Sydney, and Chiang Mai, the platform said.

Qunar said that Chinese tourists flew to nearly 1,000 cities worldwide through the platform from February 15 to 23. The most popular outbound destination cities were mostly in Asia, favored for their short distances, visa-friendly policies, and pleasant temperatures, making them ideal for family trips. 

A report by Bloomberg said on Tuesday that Chinese travelers now account for roughly a quarter of Thailand's weekly arrivals.

The share of arrivals from China during the week ended on February 22 - spanning the Chinese New Year peak travel season - reached 23 percent, close to the level seen before the pandemic and up from 9 percent at the start of 2026, according to Bloomberg calculations based on official data.

Although weekly arrivals from China edged down slightly, the country has remained Thailand's largest source of visitors for seven straight weeks, well ahead of visitors from Malaysia, which led inbound tourism for much of 2025, the report said. 

The Global Times reported earlier that, during the first week of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush from February 2 to 8, the number of flights on China-Japan routes dropped by 1,292 compared to the same period last year, marking a year-on-year decrease of 49.2 percent, per Flight Master.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in January was down 4.9 percent from a year earlier, marking the first year-on-year decline for the month in four years as Chinese tourists stayed away, the Xinhua News Agency reported on February 18.

According to Japan National Tourism Organization, the latest figure marked the first time since January 2022 that the monthly total dropped below the level of the same month in the previous year.

The overall decline was largely driven by a 60.7-percent fall in arrivals from China, marking the second consecutive month of contraction, the organization said.

Global Times