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| When the first Chinese tourists landed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok this month, they were greeted like celebrities with welcome banners, flowers, gifts, and a scrum of reporters and photographers. | 本月，当第一批中国游客降落在曼谷的素万那普国际机场时，他们像名人一样受到横幅、鲜花、礼物以及成群记者和摄影师的迎接。 |
| It was the moment that hotels, airlines, tour operators and government officials had long been waiting for — the reopening of China’s borders after nearly three years of pandemic restrictions that effectively cut the world off from Chinese travelers, once the largest source of global tourism revenue. | 酒店、航空公司、旅游运营商和政府官员对这一时刻期待已久——在将近三年的大流行限制实质上切断了世界与中国游客的联系后，中国重新开放了边境，中国游客曾是全球旅游收入的最大来源。 |
| “It is very exciting to visit warm beautiful places again,” said Hua Liu, 34, a graphic designer from Shanghai, who was among the first visitors to Thailand, where she took a two-week beach vacation late this month, as part of a Lunar New Year trip. “I will make up for the lost time,” she said in a telephone interview. Her plan: “Stay at nice hotels, book spa treatments, eat at fine restaurants and buy nice gifts for myself and my family.” | “再次来到温暖美丽的地方非常令人兴奋，”来自上海的34岁平面设计师刘华（音）说。她是首批来到泰国的游客之一，本月下半，作为春节旅行，她在泰国度过了为期两周的海滩假期。“我要弥补失去的时间，”她在接受电话采访时说。她的计划是：“入住优质酒店，预订水疗护理，在高级餐厅用餐，并为自己和家人购买精美礼物。” |
| Before the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed international travel in 2020, China sent more travelers overseas than any other market, with about 150 million Chinese tourists spending $277 billion abroad in 2018, according to a study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the China Tourism Academy. That outflow halted in 2020 and in the last year, even as countries around the world eased travel restrictions, China maintained an international travel ban for its citizens as part of its “zero Covid” policy. | 根据联合国世界旅游组织和中国旅游研究院的一项研究，在2020年新冠病毒大流行导致国际旅行瘫痪之前，中国向海外输送的游客数量超过任何其他市场，2018年约有1.5亿中国游客在国外消费2770亿美元。这样的流出自2020年停止，即使去年世界各国放宽了旅行限制，但作为其“清零”政策的一部分，中国仍对其公民实施国际旅行禁令。 |
| But on Jan. 8, the Chinese government opened its borders, allowing foreign travelers to enter and Chinese residents to go overseas. Some in the travel industry were predicting a flood of international Chinese travelers after search interest for outbound flights from mainland China increased by 83 percent between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, with international flight bookings up 59 percent in the same period, according to the Chinese online travel agency Ctrip. | 不过，中国政府于1月8日开放了边境，允许外国游客入境和中国居民出国。根据中国旅行预订网站携程的数据，在12月26日至1月5日期间，对中国大陆出境航班的搜索兴趣增加了83%，同期国际航班预订量增加了59%，旅游行业的一些人预测将有大量中国游客涌入。 |
| But while there has been a bump in tourism to nearby destinations, including Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore, farther-flung destinations are still waiting. In addition to high levels of Covid cases within China, Chinese travelers face long delays in getting passports and visas, high prices for international flights and a lack of capacity, since many carriers cut flights during China’s long lockdown. As of Friday, the number of airline seats available on direct flights from China to Britain in January was at about eight percent of those available in 2019, according to VisitBritain, the official tourist board. The first direct flight scheduled between China and Switzerland on Jan. 26 was canceled because of a lack of passengers. | 然而，尽管澳门、香港、泰国和新加坡等附近目的地的旅游业出现了增长，较远的目的地仍在等待。除了中国境内新冠病例数居高不下之外，中国游客还面临着护照和签证的长时间延误、国际航班价格高昂以及运力不足的问题，这是因为许多航空公司在中国长期封锁期间削减了航班。官方旅游局VisitBritain的数据显示，截至周五，1月份从中国飞往英国的直飞航班的座位数约为2019年的8%。原定于1月26日的首个从中国飞往瑞士的直飞航班因乘客不足而取消。 |
| Thailand gets ready | 泰国做好了准备 |
| Before the pandemic, busloads of up to 700 Chinese tourists daily crowded into Maetaeng Elephant Park in the low-slung hills of northern Thailand, about an hour north of Chiang Mai. | 在疫情之前，每天有多达700名中国游客乘坐大巴，来到清迈以北约一个小时车程的地方，涌入位于泰国北部低矮丘陵的湄登大象公园。 |
| Borprit Chailert, the park’s manager, is eagerly awaiting their return, but so far only about 40 Chinese vacationers have shown up, he said. | 公园经理波普利特·猜勒热切地等待着他们的回归，但他说，到目前为止，只来了大约40名左右的中国游客。 |
| When they do arrive, renting elephants from nearby villagers to fortify his herd of 76 won’t be difficult, Mr. Chailert said. But it’s hard to know when to bring on more workers and where to find them, since many left the tourist region and switched jobs when tourism stopped, he said. | 猜勒说，他目前有76头大象，等到中国游客真的来了，从附近村民那里租大象来充实自己的象群并非难事。但他表示，难的是不知道什么时候应该增加人手，以及到哪里去找人，因为许多人在旅游行业停摆后离开了这个景区，并且换了工作。 |
| “If we want to hire 100 people today, we can’t do that because we’re not sure,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe in the next two months the Chinese government says, ‘We’re closing the border again.’” | “如果今天想招100人是做不到的，因为充满了不确定，”他说。“我不知道，也许在接下来的两个月里，中国政府会说，‘我们要再次关闭国门。’” |
| With its economy heavily dependent on tourism, Thailand lost out on tens of billions of dollars in spending by Chinese tourists over the last three years. The Chiang Mai office of the Tourism Authority estimates that the city, known for its stunning Buddhist temples and heavy dependence on tourism, will welcome back about 600,000 Chinese visitors this year who will spend about $230 million — about half of the total from 2019. | 由于经济严重依赖旅游业，在过去三年里，泰国损失了中国游客带来的数百亿美元的消费。清迈旅游局估计，这座以令人惊叹的佛教寺庙和严重依赖旅游业而闻名的城市，今年将迎来约60万中国游客，他们将花费约2.3亿美元——约为2019年总额的一半。 |
| The real numbers won’t start until the second quarter, people in the Thai travel sector say. Many Chinese tourists traditionally come to Thailand on group tours (they made up about half of the Chinese visitors in Chiang Mai), and the Chinese government is not letting tour operators restart their businesses until Feb. 6, and then only under a pilot program with about two dozen countries, including Thailand. For now, only independent Chinese tourists who can afford the expensive airfare are taking trips. | 泰国旅游业人士表示，真实数字要到二季度才会开始出现。许多中国游客传统上都是跟团游（他们约占清迈中国游客的一半），而中国政府要到2月6日才允许旅行社恢复出境团队游业务，而且仅在20个国家进行试点，其中包括泰国。目前，只有那些负担得起昂贵机票的中国自由行游客才会出游。 |
| But not everyone is keen to welcome back group tours. Even before Covid, operators in Thailand and China saw a reversal of the group tour trend and a shift toward more tech-savvy Chinese travelers armed with booking and experience apps taking trips on their own. | 但并非所有人都热烈欢迎团队游的回归。甚至早在新冠疫情之前，泰国和中国的旅游业者就发现，跟团游的趋势发生了逆转，出现了越来越多会玩科技产品的中国游客，他们借助预订和体验应用程序自由行。 |
| Over the last decade, while the overall numbers of Chinese tourists rose, group tours dwindled amid a crackdown on cheap so-called zero-dollar tours in Phuket, the 40-mile long island on the Thai peninsula’s west coast. Often illegal operations dodging taxes, the tours typically were controlled by Chinese investors who owned buses, hotels, restaurants, spas and gift shops, siphoning off tourist spending from locals. They were known for pressuring guests to buy overpriced souvenirs at the shops they controlled. | 过去十年里，虽然中国游客的总体数量在增加，但在普吉岛（位于泰国西海岸，南北长度约50公里）对所谓“零元团”的打击下，团游逐渐减少。这些旅行团往往系非法经营以逃避税收，通常由中国投资者控制，他们拥有巴士、酒店、餐馆、水疗中心和礼品店，从当地旅游业者那里吸走游客的消费。他们以强迫游客在他们控制的商店购买高价纪念品而闻名。 |
| “I don’t think that we will have more of the big tour groups,” said Nantida Atiset, a hotel owner in Phuket and the vice president of the Phuket Tourist Association. “I think they will come back, of course. It’s just a matter of how big they will come back.” | “我认为不会有更多大型旅游团，”普吉岛一家酒店老板、普吉岛旅游协会副会长南提达·阿提塞特说。“当然，我认为他们会回来的。现在的问题是，会以什么样的规模回归。” |
| Pricey flights to London and Australia | 飞往伦敦和澳大利亚的高价航班 |
| In London, another popular destination for Chinese travelers, more than 300,000 people visited Chinatown last week for the first Lunar New Year parade since the coronavirus, but few Chinese tourists were present. | 中国旅客的另一个热门目的地是伦敦。伦敦唐人街上周迎来了新冠疫情以来的首届春节庆典，有超过30万人参加，但现场没有多少中国游客。 |
| Feng Yang, the manager of Shanghai Family, a Chinese restaurant in central London, said that he didn’t expect any travelers from China during the Lunar New Year period, but was hopeful they would return in a few months. “They’re still affected by the coronavirus,” Mr. Yang said, adding that his business would most likely not suffer because about 85 percent of his customers are Chinese students from the surrounding universities, who aren’t going back to China for the holiday. | 伦敦市中心的中餐厅大沪仁家的经理冯阳（音）说，他预计在春节期间不会接待来自中国的游客，但希望未来几个月他们能回来。“他们还在受新冠疫情影响，”冯阳说，他还表示，他的生意基本没被影响，因为约有85%的客人都是周边大学的中国学生，他们没有回国过年。 |
| The slow growth can be blamed on a combination of factors. “There aren’t many flights, they will tend to be more expensive, and people will need a visa to come,” said Patricia Yates, the chief executive of VisitBritain, adding that the return of Chinese travelers to Britain would be a “slow build” this year with higher expectations in 2024. Round-trip flights to London from China are currently running at around $1,300 and Ms. Yates expects the number of seats on flights from China to Britain to grow to only 30 percent of 2019 capacity by June. “That is really necessary to get people on planes,” she said. | 增长缓慢的原因有很多。“航班不多，价格往往更贵，而且人们过来还需要签证，”英国旅游局首席执行官叶佩茜(Patricia Yates)说，她还说，今年中国游客重回英国将是个“缓慢增长的过程”，但2024年的预期数据会更高。目前，从中国到伦敦的往返航班价格约1300美元，叶佩茜预计，到6月，中国飞伦敦的航班乘客数量只会增长到2019年运力的30%。“鼓励人们上飞机真的很有必要，”她说。 |
| Before the pandemic, China was Australia’s biggest visitor market in terms of spending. The country received 1.4 million Chinese visitors in 2019 who spent $12.4 billion. | 疫情前，中国是澳大利亚最大的旅客消费市场。2019年，澳大利亚接待了140万中国旅客，消费总额达124亿澳元。 |
| Chinese travelers have started to return to visit friends and family, but travel operators do not expect an influx of leisure travelers for several months, as flights are expensive and Australia is not on China’s approved list for group tour destinations. Australia also requires coronavirus testing for Chinese travelers. This month, round-trip flights between China and Australia range between $1,800 and $3,000. Before the pandemic, Chinese tourists were known for being willing to spend money, said James Shen, the owner of Odyssey Travel in Melbourne. “Chinese tourists are the ones who say, ‘I don’t want to take a boat, I want to take a helicopter,’” he said. “It might be a 10-minute journey, 400 Australian dollars — very expensive — but Chinese tourists will say, ‘I want to take this, not the boat, because maybe I’ll get seasick.’” | 虽然中国旅客已经开始回澳探亲访友，但由于机票价格昂贵，且澳大利亚也不在中方批准的团体旅游目的地范围内，旅行社预计未来数月不会有太多散客抵达。澳大利亚还要求对中国旅客进行新冠检测。本月，中澳之间的往返机票价格在1800美元到3000美元之间。墨尔本长城旅行社的老板沈旭辉表示，疫情前，中国游客都以出手大方著称。“中国游客会说，‘我不要坐船，我要坐直升机，’”他说。“可能就是10分钟的行程，就要支付极其昂贵的400澳元，但中国游客会说，‘我要坐这个，我不坐船，因为我可能晕船。’” |
| While many travel operators are eager for their return, some worry that the industry may not be able to keep up with a new influx of tourists. | 虽然许多旅行社渴望他们的回归，但一些人担心，旅游业可能跟不上新一波游客的步伐。 |
| “The industry disappeared for two years; it’ll be very hard for it to recover,” said Rick Liu, the owner of TanTan Holiday travel agency in Melbourne. Many drivers and tour guides found other work while the tourism industry was on pause, he added, and hiring them back may be difficult. | “这个行业消失了两年时间；恢复将会是非常困难的，”墨尔本探探假日（音）旅行社的老板瑞克·刘（音）说。他还表示，在旅游业停滞期间，许多司机导游都换了工作，可能很难重新雇回他们。 |
| “I’m happy that we’ll have more tourists, but I’m also a bit worried about whether we’ll be able to accommodate them properly, provide them with high enough quality service,” he added. “We’re a bit out of practice.” | “我很开心看到游客变多了，但我也有点担心我们的接待能力够不够，能不能提供质量够好的服务，”他补充道。“我们都有些生疏了。” |
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