China is reopening: Wu

CHINA has begun reopening its tourist attractions ahead of the peak season in Apr, Wendy Wu Tours (WWT) founder told A Force for Good attendees in Sydney on Fri.

Wu said she was in conversation with the Minister of Tourism in China urging the government to tell travellers of its plans, admitting “the only problem is the government is not very good at communicating.

“You’ve got to tell the Australian people and British travellers… that you are looking at all the numbers, the new cases, and you are already starting to open lots of attractions and you are planning to open in Apr, which is the peak season,” Wu told the Minister.

Wu told attendees WWT’s performance in the Australian office compared to last year was down 13%, and in the UK it had slid 5%.

“And considering 50% of our business is actually China, then we are doing pretty well,” she said, adding “however, to be down is a very unusual thing at Wendy Wu Tours because we’re used to growth”.

Wu said when the SARS outbreak occurred, China accounted for 85% of the business.

The company moved to diversify outside of China, to Vietnam and Cambodia, a move which allowed it to grow by 3% during the outbreak.

After SARS, she said the company became number one for China and was “very well accepted and respected in the destination” because it was the first “to go back with magnitude”.

Last week WWT announced it expected all of its tours in China to operate in full from the start of next month (TD 04 Mar).