Skyscanner’s leading flight search and comparison capabilities now live in beta in Chat GPT plug-in.
25.08.2023 - 14:27 / skift.com / Xi Jinping
Chinese people, cut off from the rest of the world for three years by stringent COVID-19 curbs, flocked to travel sites on Tuesday ahead of borders reopening next month, even as rising infections strained the health system and roiled the economy.
Zero-COVID measures in place since early 2020 – from shuttered borders to frequent lockdowns – last month fuelled the Chinese mainland’s biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
His subsequent abrupt U-turn on the curbs, which have battered the $17-trillion economy, the world’s second-largest, means the virus is now spreading largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people.
Official statistics, however, showed only one COVID death in the seven days to Monday, fuelling doubts among health experts and residents about the government’s data. The numbers are inconsistent with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.
Doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed with five-to-six-times more patients than usual, most of them elderly. International health experts estimate millions of daily infections and predict at least one million COVID deaths in China next year.
Nevertheless, Chinese authorities are determined to dismantle the last vestiges of their zero-COVID policies.
In a major step towards freer travel – cheered by global stock markets on Tuesday – China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, the National Health Commission (NHC) said late on Monday.
“It finally feels as if China has turned the corner,” AmCham China Chairman Colm Rafferty said of the imminent lifting of the quarantine rule.
There are no official restrictions on Chinese people going abroad but the new rule will make it much easier for them to return home.
Travel platform Ctrip’s data showed that within half an hour of the news, searches for popular cross-border destinations had increased 10-fold. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea were the most sought-after, Ctrip said.
Data from Trip.com showed outbound flights bookings were up 254% early on Tuesday from the day before.
China’s National Immigration Administration said on Tuesday that it would resume processing passport applications of Chinese nationals seeking to travel abroad and approving visits of mainland residents to Hong Kong.
China will also resume the implementation of a policy allowing visa-free transit of up to 144 hours for travellers. The extension or renewal of foreigners’ visas will also be restored, the immigration administration added.
Shares in global luxury goods groups, which rely heavily on Chinese shoppers, rose on Tuesday on the easing of travel restrictions. China accounts for 21% of the world’s
Skyscanner’s leading flight search and comparison capabilities now live in beta in Chat GPT plug-in.
Marketers beware: Prior ways of marketing to Chinese consumers, including travelers, won’t work as well today because their preferences changed during the pandemic.
Beijing shut parks, malls and museums on Tuesday while more Chinese cities resumed mass testing for Covid-19 as authorities struggle with a spike in cases that has deepened concern about the economy and dimmed hopes for a quick reopening.
Searches on Chinese travel sites surged and social media platforms were flooded with delight and relief on Wednesday as the public cheered the biggest loosening of some of the world’s strictest Covid policies.
Southeast Asia’s tourist economies are set to be leading beneficiaries of China‘s scrapping of travel bans as they have steered clear of the COVID-19 tests before entry that Europe, Japan and the United States have imposed on Chinese visitors.
Authorities around the world are imposing or considering curbs on travellers from China as COVID-19 cases in the country surge following its relaxation of “zero-COVID” rules.
More than half of Chinese say they will put off travel abroad, for periods from several months to more than a year, even if borders reopened tomorrow, a study showed on Tuesday, a sign that consumer recovery from Covid-19 measures will take time.
China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8, the National Health Commission said on Monday in a major step towards easing curbs on its borders, which have been largely shut since 2020.
A venture studio shut down its remote working startup after discovering its business model wasn’t really meeting its goals.
Even though China’s recent relaxation of Covid measures is widely seen as a step forward for travel, Trip.com is still cautious in the very near term as winter is usually a slack season for both business and leisure travel.
Travel website KAYAK, owned by Booking Holdings Inc, said domestic searches for hotels within China surged last week, after the country loosened its COVID-19-related restrictions.
China has told travel agencies in Japan that it has stopped issuing new visas for travel, three companies confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday, an apparent response to stricter measures for Chinese arrivals after their country freed up travel.