Complications abound for travelers
Before the pandemic, Southeast Asia was one of the fastest-growing regions in the world for international tourism, with a record 139 million visitors in 2019, a jump of about 8 percent compared to 2018, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The emerald waters of Halong Bay in Vietnam were crowded with hundreds of cruise boats, rooftops bars in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia teemed with partyers and walking on streets on Thai islands like Phuket meant enduring shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. Tourist attractions across the region were congested with package tours from China, the world’s biggest source of outbound tourism for the past decade. According to the U.N.W.T.O., about 150 million Chinese travelers spent $277 billion in 2018 alone.
Countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Cambodia were among favorite destinations of Chinese…
