BEIJING – Authorities in China lifted a ban on group tours to multiple countries including the US, UK, Australia, South Korea and Japan, in fresh changes.Â
According to the details, group tours will start immediately on Thursday and as per the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the relaxation applies to all travel agencies and online platforms across the country.
Travel experts say the move could see crowds of Chinese tourists return to destinations around the world as Covid related restrictions are virtually over.
Thursday’s development is the latest Chinese move towards reopening to the world, months after the government dropped its containment measures last year.
China isolated itself from the world in 2020 as part of a strict zero-Covid strategy, suspending visas and opting quarantine measures to curb the spread of the virus in the country.
“From now on, travel agencies across the country and online travel companies will resume operating outbound group tours” to more than 70 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a statement.
Chinese tour groups had already received consent to visit other countries earlier this year under a trial program, including tourist hotspots Thailand, Italy and France.
The Chinese tourism ministry states the outbound tourism had been developing in a stable manner since the start of the trial period, “playing a positive role in promoting tourism exchanges and cooperation.”
China had the largest outbound tourism market in the world in 2019 as per consulting firm McKinsey; however, the country could not sustain the momentum in the wake of Covid-19.
Chinese authorities effectively ended the country’s practice of mass testing, lockdowns and long quarantines in December lasst year; Beijing resumed issuing a range of visas to foreigners in March, but stats show inbound tourism has not restored to pre-pandemic levels.
Interestingly, Chinese tourists can now travel in groups to almost 140 countries across the globe but still a few dozen nations remain excluded, including Canada, Ukraine, as well as some countries in South America and Africa.
