DOHA - The return of Chinese tourists to destinations worldwide will top off a spectacular post-Covid-19 global tourism revival in 2023, according to industry leaders.

Jet makers, airline executives and hotel tycoons at this week’s Qatar Economic Forum spoke of an apparently insatiable demand for travel.

Chinese tourists, now unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions, will complete the boom, they said.

“The desire to travel has never been greater and the industry is struggling how to respond to that demand,” said Boeing chairman David Calhoun as he told of the aviation giant’s battle to meet demand for jets.

Leisure travel has overtaken business as the main reason for taking a plane or booking a room, according to Mr Sebastien Bazin, head of Accor, Europe’s biggest hotel group.

The northern hemisphere summer travel season is expected to send airline traffic back to levels last seen before the pandemic erupted in December 2019.

Executives said China’s free-spending tourists will play a key role in the revival, while putting new pressure on the travel industry.

Hotel group Accor has predicted that “millions” of Chinese could boost travel industry coffers in the coming months.

Mr Akbar Al-Baker, Qatar Airways’ chief executive, said all of its planes leaving China are “absolutely packed”.

“Not only are they paying the fares that I am asking due to the lack of capacity available to them, but also the amount of money they spend in our duty free at (Doha) airport is more than any other nationality,” he added.

Mr William Ellwood Heinecke, the billionaire Thai-American owner of the Minor International hospitality group, said that in the first quarter of 2023 the number of Chinese tourists in Thailand was 85 per cent lower than in 2019.

“I think we are definitely in rebound, but more importantly we haven’t seen China come back yet,” he said, predicting the boom would be com...