China’s efforts to control virus has tourists steering clear, wary of lockdown

BEIJING — The Beizhong International Travel Agency in the eastern city of Tianjin has had just one customer since coronavirus outbreaks that began in July prompted Chinese leaders to renew city lockdowns and travel controls.

Most of China is virus-free, but the abrupt, severe response to outbreaks has left would-be tourists jittery about traveling to places they might be barred from leaving. That has hit consumer spending, hindering efforts to keep the economic recovery on track.

China’s zero-tolerance strategy of trying to isolate every case and stop transmission has helped keep the country where the virus was first detected in late 2019 largely free of disease. But the public and businesses are paying a steep price.

Foreign athletes are due to compete in the Winter Olympics starting Feb. 4 in Beijing and the nearby city of Zhangjiakou, but the government has yet to say whether restrictions that prevent most foreigners from entering China will be relaxed to allow spectators in.

“Two years ago, this was our busiest season,” said the Beizhong agency manager, Wang Hui.

“Now, customers tend to postpone their plans because of the outbreaks,” Wang said. “This year is worse than last year.”

China is closed to most foreign visitors and discourages its own public from traveling.

The government has yet to give final details on virus measures for the Winter Games. Some 2,900 athletes are due to compete.

China has reported 4,636 deaths — and none since February — out of 95,577 cases since early 2020. Its total is smaller than one-day new-infection figures in the United States, India and some other countries.

Since July, outbreaks blamed on travelers bringing the more contagious delta variant into the country have occurred in Nanjing west of Shanghai, Putian and Xiamen in the southeast and Yunnan province in the southwest. But cases number in the dozens, not the tens of thousands of new daily infections seen in other countries.

China was the only major economy to grow last year after the ruling party declared the virus under control in March, and allowed factories, shops and offices to reopen. Output in the United States, Europe and Japan contracted.

The International Monetary Fund and private-sector forecasters have lowered economic growth forecasts but still expect output to rise by as much as 8.5% this year, up sharply from last year’s multidecade low of 2.3% and well above the ruling party target of “more than 6%.”

Exports in August rose 25.6% over a year earlier, but retail spending growth slowed to 2.5% from July’s 8.5%.

“People are clearly worried that they could get trapped in tourist destinations if Covid cases emerge,” economist Iris Pang of ING said in a report.