Bookings by Chinese tourists for trips to Japan in December were 35 per cent lower than in October, with cancellations continuing, said Subramania Bhatt, CEO of travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk.

Subramania Bhatt, chief executive of the travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk, told This Week in Asia that new bookings from China to Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, were running at about 15 to 20 per cent above their average weekly level from August to September.

Just as a complex jigsaw puzzle requires aligning both the main pieces (visa policy) and the edge pieces (connectivity, safety, social media presence) simultaneously to reveal the full picture, India must address infrastructure and image barriers alongside the visa changes if it hopes to connect successfully with the vast potential of the Chinese outbound tourist market.

Chinese travel firms have seen a surge in Russia-related bookings in recent weeks, as tourists continue to avoid Japan amid a diplomatic row

“The winning strategy, in China and beyond,” Bhatt says, is to “treat the solo diner as a premium guest whose time is valuable and whose independence is aspirational. That’s where the culture and the money is already going.”

Cancellations by would-be tourists are already extending through April 2026, according to data from China Trading Desk, a market researcher that specializes in China travel data. “What started as a year-end shock is now bleeding into next year,” said Subramania Bhatt, chief executive of China Trading Desk. “That suggests expectations are in free fall and many travelers are no longer treating this as a short-lived blip.”

China has been able to exert economic pressure on Japan in several different areas, from fisheries to pop culture. “The relationship is drifting away from the old pattern of ‘cold politics, hot economics’ toward something closer to ‘cold politics, cooler economics,’” says Bhatt, adding that Japan may be nudged “further into the orbit of U.S.-led economic and security coalitions.”

Searches by Chinese travellers for trips to Singapore had risen about 15 per cent by November 18, compared with the previous week, said Subramania Bhatt, CEO of the travel marketing and technology firm China Trading Desk.

Subramania Bhatt, chief executive office of China Trading Desk, told Bloomberg that Japan could lose out on as much as $1.2 billion in visitor spending between now and the end of the year as would-be travelers from China cancel their trips. He added that if Chinese visitors continue to stay away till 2026, the cumulative hit could reach as much as $9 billion, according to Bloomberg.