Beijing: China said it will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in three years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic by restoring the issuance of all types of visas from Wednesday. Authorities last month declared victory over a recent surge in the virus after lifting this last cross-border control measure put in place to guard against COVID-19. A boost to the tourism sector will help revive the $17 trillion economy, which last year posted one of the slowest rates of growth in nearly half a century.
The Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that regions in China that did not require visas before the pandemic will revert to visa-free entry. This would include the southern tourist island of Hainan and cruise ships passing through the port of Shanghai.
Visa-free entry to the southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong will also be resumed for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau.
The ministry also said that foreigners holding visas issued before March 28, 2020, will also be able to enter China.
“The resumption of applications for all types of visas removes another important barrier to the resumption of normal travel between the UK and China,” Tom Simpson, managing director of the China-UK Business Council, told Reuters.
“(The council) has already seen business travel applications and arrivals have started to increase since January, however, this news should lead to a significant increase in visits, particularly for tourism.”
China, which in January withdrew its advisory to citizens against foreign travel, also added another 40 countries to its list for which group tours are allowed, bringing the total number of countries to 60.
According to Chinese flight tracking app Flightmaster, inbound and outbound international flights in the week of March 6 soared more than 350% from a year earlier to nearly 2,500 flights, although the number was still only 17.4% of 2019 levels. .
In 2022, only 115.7 million cross-border trips will be made in and out of China, of which foreigners will account for about 4.5 million.
In contrast, China made a total of 670 million trips in 2019 before the advent of COVID, of which foreigners accounted for 97.7 million.
Beijing abandoned its strict zero-COVID policies in December and canceled quarantine requirements for incoming travelers in January.
New premier Li Qiang said on Monday that it took less than two months for China to achieve a “smooth transition” in its response to COVID-19 and that the country’s strategy and measures were completely correct.