Saturday, March 18, 2023
After it optimized its Covid-19 response, China elevated some more restrictions in travel; the recovering outbound and inbound travel of China is adding new thrust into the world tourism market.
On Wednesday, China started permitting online tourism services providers and travel agencies to provide group tours to a second list of 40 countries, comprising Greece, France, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and Brazil, as per the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
The outbound group travel market of China was temporarily stopped in early 2020 because of the worldwide pandemic.
As the country has optimised its response to pandemic efficiently, it has initiated a pilot program from Feb 6th of 2023 to recommence outbound travel to the first group of 20 enlisted countries, like Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Egypt, Maldives, Switzerland, Kenya, and New Zealand.
In the meantime, to facilitate cross-border travel even further, visa authorities of China in abroad has resumed issuance of visas all categories to foreigners. It has started on Wednesday, as per the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The deputy general manager of Spring Tour Travel Agency, Zhou Weihong, said that on the morning of March 11th, they have received the first order to travel to Spain and Portugal. It was the day after the circular on the second group of 40 destinations was unveiled. Medium to long-distance destinations like Italy and Serbia became the preferences for tourists from China and many intended to travel during the May Day holiday, Zhou said.
