Do you think that the Belt and Road Project by China will be beneficial for tourism in the countries in which it passes, and can contribute to increasing the number of tourists to these countries or is it only limited to trade?
I think the project is useful and very important in terms of trade and business, while the benefit of the tourism sector of this project remains limited and can be maximized through extending the duration of accommodation of individuals within the tourist destination, and providing tourist services in sea and land ports.
Many respondents view the Belt and Road project as being beneficial to tourism. However hardly anyone has given reason for their thinking. The $64 question is: Why?
My answer is that it will be of marginal benefit only, and that too for people living in contiguous countries. Let us not forget that travelling by road and rail does take time and not many people will have so much time that they can get very far. It would be better to fly given the limited holiday time many people have.
Here is an illustration; Imagine the sequence of travel from east to west in this order: Z-Y-X-W-V...China (China is in the extreme east and Z is in the extreme west). A person in V may be able to travel from, say V to W, but to get from V to X will take a longer time and to Y it will take even greater time. Do think of the fact that the person from V who reached X will also have to get back to V. Goods sent from V to X may hardly need to get back to V as they involve a one direction of travel unlike the tourist...
That said, trade involving movement of goods will be the greater beneficiary than a tourist, if that precious commodity called time which we are always short of, is not as important as it is to travellers.
The most important role plays the wealthiness. Some of the BRI countries are poor so the impact on turism is limited by this factor. I can imagine greater travels between some of the participating countries but not between all of them. The second are regulations (VISAs etc). The third is cultural aspect. At the moment the BRI is more political project than cultural issue, so the impact of the project on tourism is limited. In the UE we have a lot of tourism but it is based on many insitutional changes. It was a process leading to free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Tourism is the last one of them... So we can imagine dedicated journeys, but the second part contributing to tourism are private, individual journeys, not organized by travel agents. I do not see good conditions for such kind of tourism in many countries... So I can imagine greater tourism in the BRI members as a consequence of the initiative, but not the same size and nature as we observe in other regions of the world (e.g. in the EU).
And one additional feature. I visited China (the founder of BRI) several times and there are many obstacles for tourists and visiting the country is still a challenge - there are some facilities but on the other hand it is difficult to travel. At the beginning I had problem with money exchange (when my passport was in the Embassy for VISA extension I was not able to change money, and there was a holiday and I was several days with very limited possibility to exchange money)... And the payment system is another obstacle for short time tourists - cash is less and less popular in China, but it is important that not everybody want to install in their personal mobile phones WeChat or another Apps, which are treated as common means of payment... I remember how much time I spent to find a shop with a coffee and when I explained my dilemmas to local people they explained to me that I should better prepare for my journey... Sorry, but if there is an expectation of tourism development, the participating countries must do something to ease the tourists life. Not every tourist want to be explorer and cope with such issues like access to Internet, search for a coffee shop, have limited possibility to exchange money without restrictions etc. They are basic needs of tourists. If the current restrictions are not eased, it will be a limited number of travellers, who want to cope with such problems, comparing to the potential size... Not every tourist is a professional globetrotter...
Offers another route to connect east to west using the land route or a series of interland connections through sea and land. Trade will be main beneficiary initially while tourism will follow. Creates new centers of growth and minimize dependence on one monopolize route.