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(CNN) — Xiongjie Dai, a freelance software engineer living in the Chinese city of Suzhou, dreams about his first big trip post-Covid-19.

The 32-year-old says destinations like South Korea, Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Australia rank high on the list. But he has his eyes set on the US.

“When I have enough money, I’d like to visit America first,” he tells CNN Travel. “America is the leader in both the computer science and IT industries, so I want to visit Silicon Valley and famous universities like MIT, Stanford and so on.”

“We are optimistic about the tourism outlook,” Wendy Min, head of media and executive communications at the Trip.com Group, tells CNN Travel.

“The latest policy announcement is encouraging, and we expect strong pent-up demand and increasing consumer confidence.”

Where to first?

Singapore is a top destination for Chinese travelers, according to Trip.com Group data.

Noppasinw/Adobe Stock

The most popular destinations so far are Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand, based on Trip.com Group bookings. For long-haul destinations, the US, UK and Australia lead the pack.

“The trend we have seen is that short-haul flights are popular due to (lower) prices. Singapore, South Korea and Japan have always been quite popular with Chinese travelers, even pre-Covid,” says Min.

It makes sense for regional travel to recover first, says Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), since it is easier and less expensive to visit nearby destinations.

But the first quarter of 2023 will be almost exclusively urgent non-leisure travel, such as business trips, family reunions, student travel or healthcare needs, he adds.

The first wave of leisure travel

According to Arlt, leisure travel will start to pick up in the second quarter of the year when things like passport and visa approval processes are running smoothly, and flights have fully resumed.

“Some leisure travelers will be very motivated to get a passport, visa and affordable ticket. Others will wait and see what stories the ‘pioneers’ have when they return,” he tells CNN Travel.

“The government spent three years making people in China feel afraid of the outside world, so some will still be anxious about whether it’s safe to travel.”

Throughout the pandemic, Chinese state media and the ruling Communist Party have repeatedly highlighted high death tolls in places like the US and UK compared to relatively low figures in China, as proof of the superiority of China’s authoritarian system.

As consumer confidence builds through the first quarter, Arlt expects to see more Chinese travelers taking regional getaways that prioritize well-being, relaxation and nature, probably around April.

Sienna Parulis-Cook is the director of marketing and communications at the Dragon Trail International digital marketing agency. She points to the Maldives as a beach destination of choice for affluent travelers in 2023.

“The Maldives appeals especially to the luxury market and those looking for a beautiful beach getaway — it’s also a destination that seemed to recover from the impact of Covid relatively quickly compared to other places in the world, so this might play into its popularity now,” she says.

Others will plan trips around hobbies, like mountain biking, hiking, wine-tasting, cooking and calligraphy.

“A lot of Chinese people have had time to develop their special interests (during the past three years),” says Arlt. “The pandemic has proven how fragile and short life can be, so doing meaningful things has become that much more important.”

The most desirable destinations

Luxury lovers have long been drawn to the Maldives.

s4svisuals/Adobe Stock

Based on COTRI data projections, overseas trips could reach 115 million — a rebound of about three-quarters — by the end of the year, including trips to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

Many of the same destinations will resume their top positions as travel rebounds, Parulis-Cook says.

In 2019, Thailand was the No. 1 most-visited destination by Chinese travelers, welcoming around 11 million Chinese tourists — over a quarter of the country’s overseas arrivals.

“The destinations that were popular before the pandemic are likely to resume their popularity when China reopens. The Chinese travel industry, and Dragon Trail, definitely expect destinations in Greater China (Hong Kong and Macau), Southeast, and East Asia to recover first,” says Parulis-Cook.

“They’re the closest to China, they have the most-recovered flight connectivity so far, and they are likely to seem safest and easiest for a first post-Covid outbound trip.”

Emerging hotspots and experiences

Chinese travelers have had three years to dream about where they want to go and swap stories with friends, says Arlt, and there’s growing interest in discovering less conventional destinations.

Trip.com’s Min is a case in point.

“I am definitely ready to restart my travel adventures. I typically visited five new countries per year pre-Covid,” she says. “Now that connection and mobility are coming back, I’m looking forward to some solo backpacking and experiencing the world through my own eyes again.”

The travel enthusiast has ambitious plans to explore Cyprus, Oman, Iraq, Rwanda, Madagascar and Namibia in 2023.

“I’ve thought about Central America too but will have to see what time I have,” she says.

Min’s desire to explore less-trodden destinations reflects a larger trend among experienced travelers.

Georgia offers travelers a unique mix of experiences.

Lukas Bischoff/iStockphoto/Getty Images

For example, Arlt says countries like Albania or Georgia are of interest.

Before the pandemic, Albania was just starting to appear on the radar for Chinese travelers. The country has centuries-old villages and authentic rural settings, which appeal to seasoned travelers, he says.

Georgia, meanwhile, attracts with its diverse mix of experiences: an urban adventure in the capital Tbilisi, skiing in the mountains, Black Sea beaches and ancient architecture.

“These are places that are still being discovered,” says Arlt, who will publish a book on the next wave of China’s outbound tourism later this month.

“Paris isn’t impressive anymore. If you tell your friends you’ve been to Albania, they will think you’re very special. That you have taste and a sense of adventure.”

Shifts in travel styles

According to Trip.com Group, Chinese travelers are gravitating towards small groups and independent travel, rather than large tours, and paying more attention to sustainability.

Arlt has observed the same trends.

“There are big changes in the demand and expectations of Chinese outbound travelers,” he says. “Young people in China are very interested in sustainability and green topics, as China is also suffering under the consequences of climate change.”

According to a 2022 Dragon Trail survey, 48.3% of prospective travelers said they would choose accommodation with environmentally friendly operations, 45.5% will choose cruelty-free ways to see wild animals and 37.9% will personally contribute to the local environment by picking up trash or cycling instead of driving.

What’s more, the top reasons to travel overseas were to “try local food” (60.8%), “experience local life” (56%) and “visit beach and sea” (51.8%).

But not everything has changed when it comes to what Chinese travelers want.

“Many post-pandemic trends and preferences in Chinese travel show continuity with (those) developing before the pandemic. Nature and outdoor activities, self-driving (renting cars for road trips), and a shift from large group tours to independent travel are all examples of this,” says Parulis-Cook.

“Seeking out open spaces and nature has been very popular during the pandemic — driven by the desire to get out of cities or away from crowds — but that was a major draw for Chinese outbound tourists before Covid, too.”

For example, a chance to stargaze or experience the aurora (or polar lights) was something that attracted Chinese travelers to places like Norway, Peru, Canada and New Zealand before the pandemic.

Given its popularity in China, Parulis-Cook would not be surprised if travelers try glamping in places like Japan or Thailand, where local operators have already been advertising to netizens on Chinese social media.

There’s also an appetite for more long-term travel, such as living, studying or pursuing a career abroad, says Arlt.

“A lot of people will travel to different places to decide if they want to move to Singapore, London, Toronto or Sydney. These people probably will be (among the first to travel again).”

Hurdles to entry

In response to the travel restrictions/screenings, International Air Transport Association Director General Willie Walsh issued a statement on January 4, admonishing countries for reinstating measures that have “proven ineffective” while “the virus is already circulating widely within their borders.”

“We have the tools to manage Covid-19 without resorting to ineffective measures that cut off international connectivity, damage economies and destroy jobs,” he says.

Parulis-Cook also expressed concerns about the consequences of targeted entry requirements.

“When travel restrictions are country-specific — travelers from China, India or South Africa, to give some examples from the past years — rather than universal, they are much more effective in creating stigma than preventing the spread of Covid,” she says.

“Chinese travelers will have a lot of choices for their first outbound trip, and destinations without any entry restrictions will appeal to them as friendlier and easier to travel to.”

Arlt offers a different perspective.

“I see all this discussion that Chinese travelers will feel uncomfortable having to do a test before departure to many destinations and will prefer destinations which do not ask for a test,” he says.

“Actually, they are not only used to testing and getting tests for free in China, they will also be happy to know that all the other passengers in their airplane have tested negatively as well.”

Six journalists in South Sudan have been detained over the circulation of footage showing President Salva Kiir appearing to wet himself at an official event, the national journalists union said on Saturday.

The footage from December showed a dark stain spread down the 71-year-old president’s gray trousers as he stood for the national anthem at a road commissioning event. The video never aired on television but subsequently circulated on social media.

The journalists, who work with the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Patrick Oyet, president of the South Sudan Union of Journalists.

They “are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out,” he told Reuters.

South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei and National Security Service spokesperson David Kumuri did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kiir has been president since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Government officials have repeatedly denied rumors circulating on social media that he is unwell. The country has been embroiled in conflict for much of the past decade.

The detained journalists are camera operators Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman; video editor Victor Lado; contributor Jacob Benjamin; and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room, Oyet said.

“We are concerned because those who are detained now have stayed longer than what the law says,” he added.

By law, South Sudanese authorities are allowed to detain suspects for only 24 hours before bringing them before a judge.

The incident “matches a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavorable,” said the sub-Saharan Africa representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Muthoki Mumo.

CNN
 — 

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted in January 2022, it sent shockwaves around the world. Not only did it trigger widespread tsunami waves, but it also belched an enormous amount of climate-warming water vapor into the Earth’s stratosphere.

Now researchers in a new report have unveiled something else: the eruption set off more than 25,500 lightning events in just five minutes. Over the course of just six hours, the volcano triggered nearly 400,000 lightning events. Half of all the lightning in the world was concentrated around this volcano at the eruption’s peak.

The “cataclysmic eruption” shattered “all records,” according to the report from Vaisala, an environmental monitoring company that tracks lightning around the world.

“It’s the most extreme concentration of lightning that we’ve ever detected,” Chris Vagasky, meteorologist and lightning expert at Vaisala, told CNN. “We’ve been detecting lightning for 40 years now, and this is really an extreme event.”

The annual report by Vaisala found that 2022 was a year of extremes for lightning. Lightning increased in the US in 2022, with more than 198 million lightning strokes — 4 million more than what was observed in 2021, and 28 million more than 2020.

“We are continuing an upward trend in lightning,” Vagasky said.

The World-Wide Lightning Location Network, another lightning monitoring network led by the University of Washington, which is not involved with the report, said Vaisala’s findings about global lightning as well as the Hunga volcano are consistent with their own observations.

“We can do this because the stronger eruptions generate lightning, and lightning sends detectable radio signals around the world,” Robert Holzworth, the director of the network, told CNN. “The Hunga eruption was absolutely impressive in its lightning activity.”

Researchers have used lightning as a key indicator of the climate crisis, since the phenomenon typically signals warming temperatures. Lightning occurs in energetic storms associated with an unstable atmosphere, requiring relatively warm and moist air, which is why they primarily occur in tropical latitudes and elsewhere during the summer months.

But in 2022, Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network found more than 1,100 lightning strokes in Buffalo, New York, during a devastating lake-effect snowstorm that dumped more than 30 inches of snow in the city, but piled historic totals in excess of 6 feet in the surrounding suburbs along Lake Erie. Lake-effect snow occurs when cold air blows over warm lake water, in this case from the Great Lakes. The large difference in temperature can cause extreme instability in the atmosphere and lead to thunderstorm-like lightning even in a snow storm.

The report noted that many of these lightning events happened near wind turbines south of Buffalo, which Vagasky said was significant. He explained that the ice crystal-filled clouds were lower to the ground than usual, scraping just above the blades of the turbines.

“That can cause what is known as self-initiated upward lightning,” Vagasky said. “So the lightning occurs because you have charged at the tip of this wind turbine blade that is really close to the base of the cloud, and it’s really easy to get a connection of the electric charge.”

This is an area of ongoing research, he said, as the country turns to more clean energy alternatives.

“We’re seeing bigger and bigger wind turbines, and certainly as we’re putting in more and more wind energy and renewable energy, lightning is going to play a role in that,” he said.

The report comes after an unusual year in 2021, when they found lightning strokes increased significantly in the typically frozen Arctic region, which scientists say is a clear sign of how the climate crisis is altering global weather.

“Lightning in polar regions wasn’t mentioned [in this year’s Vaisala report], but our global lightning network shows a trend for much more lightning in the northern polar regions,” Michael McCarthy, research associate professor and associate director of the World Wide Lightning Location Network, told CNN. “That trend closely tracks the observed average temperature changes over the northern hemisphere.

“This close tracking suggests, but does not prove, a climate change effect,” McCarthy added.

Vagasky said lightning in colder areas will only amplify as the planet warms, noting that meteorologists and climatologists have been collecting more data to not only make the climate connections clear but also keep people safe.

“That’s why they’ve named lightning as an essential climate variable,” he said, “because it’s important to know where it’s occurring, how much is occurring, and so you can see how thunderstorms are trending as a result of changing climates.”