An Air China plane cabin was filled with smoke after its engine caught fire, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Singapore on Sunday.
25.08.2023 - 14:01 / skift.com
China said that it will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic by restoring the issuance of all types of visas from Wednesday.
The removal of this last cross-border control measure imposed to guard against Covid-19 comes after authorities last month declared victory over a recent surge in the virus.
The boost to the tourism sector should help rekindle a $17 trillion economy that last year suffered one of its slowest rates of growth in nearly half a century.
Areas in China that required no visas prior to the pandemic will revert to visa-free entry, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. This will include the southern tourist island of Hainan and cruise ships passing through Shanghai port.
Visa-free entry to the southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau will also be resumed.
The ministry also said foreigners holding visas issued before March 28, 2020 that are still within their validity dates will also be able to enter China.
“Resuming applications for all types of visas removes another significant barrier in the resumption of normal travel between the UK and China,” Tom Simpson, managing director, China-Britain Business Council, told Reuters.
“The (council) has already seen business travel applications and arrivals begin to increase since January, however, this news should lead to a significant increase in visits in particular for tourism.”
China, which withdrew its advisory to citizens against foreign travel in January, also added another 40 countries to its list for which group tours are allowed, bringing the total number of countries to 60.
Inbound and outbound international flights in the week of March 6 rose more than 350 percent compared with a year earlier to nearly 2,500 flights, according to Chinese flight tracking APP Flight Master, though the number was still just 17.4 percent of 2019 levels.
In 2022, just 115.7 million cross-border trips were made in and out of China, with foreigners accounting for around 4.5 million.
Beijing abandoned its draconian zero-Covid policies in December and in January cancelled quarantine requirements for incoming travelers.
New Premier Li Qiang said on Monday that China took less than two months to achieve a “smooth transition” in its response to Covid-19 and that the country’s strategies and measures had been completely correct.
An Air China plane cabin was filled with smoke after its engine caught fire, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Singapore on Sunday.
The corporate division of Flight Centre Travel Group is outperforming the company’s leisure travel bookings, pointing to a comeback for a sector that has suffered significant cutbacks during the pandemic.
In the second quarter of 2023, the Middle East’s hotel construction pipeline has seen significant growth, marking its highest project count since the first quarter of 2020, according to Lodging Econometric’s Middle East Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report.
From 29 September until 11 November, the eagerly anticipated Festival des Etoilés Monte-Carlo is set to captivate the culinary world with the return of its exclusive four-hands dinner series. This year’s edition is marked by a collaboration of Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer’s Michelin-starred chefs with esteemed guest chefs, Julien Royer, Amaury Bouhours, Sven Wassmer and British Chef and restauranteur, Jason Atherton.
Travels and Textiles in Central Asia Textiles expert Chris Aslan explores a crossroads of history where ‘fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons’. Most travellers know of the Silk Road, but older still are the Wool Road and Cotton Road, whose tightly woven stories Aslan seeks to untangle.
ITB China, the marketplace for China’s travel industry, is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Trip.com Group, the leading global travel service provider for this year’s highly anticipated event, taking place from 12 – 14 September 2023 in Shanghai.
Emphasizing strategic cooperation, ITB China is pleased to announce the Maldives as the Official Island Travel Partner of ITB China 2023. The partnership will turn the prime travel destination into one of the highlights of the trade show, held on 12 – 14 September 2023 in Shanghai.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in Beijing late on Sunday for a four-day visit aimed at boosting business ties between the world’s two largest economies while declaring American national security trade measures off-limits for debate.
Countries should consider recommending that passengers wear masks on long-haul flights, given the rapid spread of the latest Omicron subvariant of Covid-19 in the United States, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday.
The New Zealand government said on Wednesday it would not require travelers from China to produce a negative Covid-19 test, bucking a trend that has seen a number of nations implement such measures as cases surge in China.
The situation on the ground in China isn’t ideal as the country readies to remove its travel restrictions this weekend.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, January 9, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.