Chinese travel agencies and tourists are scrambling to adjust their plans and operations after the Chinese government issued travel alerts for the US, citing increased harassment by US law enforcement agents and rising public safety nuisances.
Coming at a time when the two countries are locked in a bitter trade war, the travel alerts could further exacerbate the already declining number of Chinese tourists and immigrants to the US and could, in the medium term, deal a major below to US companies and industries, insiders and analysts said Wednesday.
"The overall number of Chinese tourist [to the US] has been relatively stable but it is expected to decline because [the alerts] will affect consumers' decisions," said Xu Xiaolei, manager of marketing at China Youth Travel Services (CYTS), one of the largest travel agencies in the country.
"The US is just one destination for Chinese tourists... we also have many other options," an employee at another agency, who declined to be identified, told the Global Times, noting that northern Europe and the Balkans have been increasingly popular among Chinese travelers.
Several other major Chinese travel agencies have also moved to focus on travel services to other destinations as they take the government travel alerts seriously by passing on the warnings on to their customers.
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