New Covid Restrictions on Chinese Travelers Will Hurt Business Travel

25.08.2023 - 14:23 / skift.com / Matthew Parsons / Olivier Jankovec

The recent relaxation of zero-Covid policies in China offered great hope to a corporate travel industry stymied by those rules and one waiting to bring China back into the fold to speed up its recovery. But the ensuing testing requirements being put in place now by countries will be a major setback and dent much-needed confidence, industry associations warn.

They believe that the growing number of restrictions on Chinese travelers represents a step backwards, ahead of an imminent proposal by the European Commission that could impose pre-departure Covid-19 testing on all 27 member countries.

On Wednesday, the commission’s Political Crisis Response unit met to thrash out the coordination of possible requirements for entry into the EU. The overwhelming majority of countries are in favor of pre-departure testing, according to reports.

“We are once again plunging back into a patchwork of unjustified and uncoordinated travel restrictions, which have no basis in scientific fact,” said Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International Europe.

Japan also recently tightened its border controls for the neighboring country — ahead of the key date of Jan. 8, after which travelers will no longer need to quarantine when entering China. There are currently now no official restrictions on Chinese people going abroad but after this milestone it will be far easier for citizens to return.

Prior to the recent restrictions being imposed on Chinese travelers, which were prompted by rising numbers of infections in China, Beijing’s decision to relax its zero-Covid strategy was regarded as the removal of a final obstacle blocking the long-awaited return of international business travel.

Now there’s real concern this recovery will be hampered.

“The introduction of testing for passengers coming to the UK from China is a sucker punch to the entire travel industry,” said Clive Wratten, CEO of the UK’s Business Travel Association, after the British government announced on December 30 it would introduce testing on arrival. “Business travel was expected to take-off from January but this is a huge step backwards for customer and corporate confidence.”

The association wants the British government to instead apply an enhanced sequencing program to gather more data on any new variants.

The Global Business Travel Association is concerned by the lack of a unified response to treating travelers. If there was any lesson to be learned from 2020, it’s that the uncertainty factor was one of the biggest hindrances for companies to restart their travel programs.

“A consistent approach to testing requirements for business travelers from China would serve to bolster traveler confidence and lessen the risk of impacting a return