China's decision to stop the sale of package tours due to the new coronavirus has led to cancellations among hotels in Sweden.

– We see that the ban on tour operators arranging trips is not least affecting hotel overnight stays. There has been a clear reduction in the influx of tourists, says Ewa Lagerqvist, CEO of Visit Sweden, which is Sweden's marketing company abroad.

China's decision almost two weeks ago to immediately stop all sales of package tours - both domestic and international - has led to widespread cancellations at hotels that normally welcome Chinese tourists.

– We are definitely noticing an effect. There are mainly cancellations of hotel nights in the period up to April. So we are losing a few million per month now in the Nordics, says Katalin Paldeak, who is operationally responsible for the hotel chains within Nordic Choice Hotels, including Clarion.

Chinese tourists have become an increasingly important customer group for the tourism industry around the world. They are now the largest tourist group globally, spending a staggering SEK 1,300 billion abroad in 2018.

Here in Sweden, they are still significantly fewer than, for example, Norwegian and German tourists. But last year was a record year. Up until November, around 386,000 overnight stays in the country were made by Chinese tourists.
How it will be this year remains to be seen.

– Since it depends on how the Chinese authorities view the situation, we simply have to wait and see. But summer is the peak season for tourism from China, so we'll see how the summer goes, says Visit Sweden CEO Ewa Lagerqvist.

Source: sverigesradio.se