Tourism in U.S. Chinatowns Hit Hard by Racism and Pandemic
Photo Credit: Empty streets like this in San Francisco's Chinatown are not uncommon in Chinatowns all across the United States as racism and the pandemic take their toll. Flickr / Jim Nix
Skift Take
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of hate crimes committed against Asian Americans has increased exponentially. Covid-19 and racism have combined to cripple tourism and local businesses in Chinatowns across the United States.
Jacqueline Church remembers the day vividly. “I was in a coffee shop on my street,” she said. “And a truck with a big Confederate flag and a Trump flag hanging out the back of the truck, and there was a woman of Indian descent standing next to me in line and both of us were just holding our breath, waiting for something.
"We didn’t know what. Luckily they just kept going, and no else said anything. But there was definitely a feeling of a lack of safety under the prior regime," added Church, who is of Japanese descent and married to a native of Hong Kong.
Although the incident happened a few years ago “when the racism was much more on the surface,” said the guide who organizes tours of Boston’s Chinatown, “I don’t think it’s disappeared.”
It certainly hasn’t. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Asian Americans have been the target of virulent racism, much of it coming from the former inhabitant of the White House. That racism has significantly contributed to the t
