Visa free policies to spark outbound summer travel

Passengers ready to board Hainan Airlines flight HU763 pose for a group photo before the plane leaves Haikou, capital of South China’s Hainan Province for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on January 30, 2024. The route is Hainan’s first air link with the UAE. Chinese airlines are mapping out more flights to cope with surging outbound travel demand, according to media reports. Photo: cnsphoto

Data from Chinese online travel agencies show that outbound travel will significantly rise this summer, boosted by visa facilitation policies. 

Searches for flights and hotels have risen by about 20 percent year-on-year, and the weekly query volume for summer travel from June 10-14 rose 15 percent from the level in 2019, data from Trip.com showed.

Searches for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, on Qunar.com surged 49 percent week-on-week on Thursday, after China and Malaysia announced plans to extend visa exemptions, with China extending the facility until end-2025 and Malaysia extending it until end-2026.

Tongcheng Travel said that searches related to Australia more than doubled after China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that both countries will issue multiple-entry visas for trips related to business, tourism and family visits. The visas will be valid for up to five years and for stays of no more than 90 days each time.

Chinese tourists’ surging demand with the recovery of domestic consumption has provided a firm foundation for an outbound travel boom, as visa-free policies are supporting outbound travel, Xu Xiaolei, a marketing manager at CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

Xu said that his company’s outbound travel is up more than 50 percent year-on-year so far this year, and the nation’s tourism industry has recovered to or exceeded the pre-pandemic level.

According to the China Tourism Academy, China’s outbound travel in 2023 surpassed 87 million trips, and the level this year is projected to hit 130 million trips. 

Jia Jianqiang, CEO of Beijing-based online agency 6renyou, told the Global Times on Sunday that his company’s general outbound travel business has recovered to the pre-pandemic level, thanks to international flight resumptions as well as visa exemption policies. 

This summer’s volume will be up 30 percent year-on-year, Jia said.

Moreover, Chinese airlines are quickly resuming overseas flights.

According to previously disclosed summer and autumn flight plans, Air China plans to operate an average of 201 international and regional flights per day, with the average daily frequency of routes returning to 84 percent of 2019, and European routes exceeding the 2019 level.

China Eastern Airlines plans to operate more than 1,240 international and regional flights per week, returning to 90.8 percent of the same period in 2019.

Data from Fly Master show that this summer, the international civil aviation market is expected to recover to about 80 percent of the same period in 2019. Southeast Asia and East Asia remain popular international destinations for Chinese visitors. 

Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Sunday that beyond making it easier to get visas, these policies play more important roles in drawing domestic tourists’ attention to overseas travel destinations and guiding them to take real action.