The Chinese travel ban due to the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus has led to a drastic decrease in Chinese tourists in Denmark. And especially one tourist attraction is suffering, reports the Danish daily JydskeVestkysten.
Around 270 Chinese tourists visited the Museum of H.C Andersen in the city of Odense in week 7 of 2019. A year later, only 44 Chinese tourists visited the famous museum. According to the organization of Museums in Odense City the number of visitors is expected to drop to zero during February 2020.
If the number of visitors remain low during the second half of the year, the results can be critical – the Museum of H.C Andersen reports that 70% of the Chinese tourists visit the museum from May and into the fall.
“It has affected us a lot already. But if the low visitor numbers only last a few weeks or months, we can probably survive. But if it continues into the months of June, July and August, we’re losing a lot of money,” says Torben Grøngaard Jeppesen, the director of Museums in Odense City.
The Museum of H.C Andersen yearly earns three million DKK ($439.000) on the tickets of Chinese tourist. The Director of Museums in Odense City adds that they can ‘easily add another million’ ($146.345) to their revenue of the sales of souvenirs purchased by Chinese visitors, according to JydskeVestkysten.
“There are a lot of people who wouldn’t be happy if we’re missing three to four million ($439.000 to $585.340) DKK at the end of the year,” the director of the Museum of H.C Andersen says.
In total, 20.000 Chinese tourists visited the Museum of H.C Andersen in Odense in 2019.
