Data reveals that for the rest of the year, Chinese outbound bookings to the US are almost 10% behind where they were at the same time last year, whereas Chinese outbound bookings worldwide are ahead by 5.5%.

President Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat trade war with China appears to have caused a significant slump in Chinese visitors to the United States that could cost the American tourism sector dearly this year - according to the latest findings from ForwardKeys which predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million booking transactions a day.

Weekly bookings from China to the US were up 2% from the last week of February (after the Chinese New Year holiday) to March 23 when the first tariffs took effect. Since then, ForwardKeys’ data shows the year-on-year figure for August is down by 8.4%, falling further as new rounds of tariffs have been announced.

ForwardKeys’ data reveals that for the rest of the year, Chinese outbound bookings to the US are 9.6% behind where they were at the same time last year, whereas Chinese outbound bookings worldwide are ahead by 5.5%.

The biggest impact has been on bookings for group travel (six or more passengers) from China to the US, currently behind for the rest of 2018 by 34.4% compared to last year. Bookings by free independent travellers are behind 3.9%, with leisure travel being worse affected than travel for business or travel to visit friends and relatives.

Original article