China's 72,144-hour transit visa-free policy applies to 54 countriesChina has decided to implement a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and MalaysiaChina and Singapore have made substantial progress in the visa exemption arrangement, ...... ChinaRecently, the entry and exit management policies have been continuously optimized, and a number of practical and hard measures have been announced one after another, showing a firm determination to expand opening up while facilitating the exchange of people between China and foreign countries.
Experts said that the continuous optimization of the entry and exit management policy is a practical action to open up the "country", which not only reflects China's attitude of adhering to the outside world, but also further strengthens the ties between China and the world, which is very important for creating a good international development environment.
Immigration policies continue to be optimized.
Recently, a number of entry-exit management policies to facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel have been implemented or officially announced, and China's "visa-free circle of friends" is getting bigger and bigger.
On the one hand, the "Circle of Friends for Mutual Visa Exemption" is expected to include new members. On December 7, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong revealed at a meeting of the Singapore-China Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) held in Tianjin that the two sides will strengthen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries through a 30-day visa waiver arrangement on the basis of the increasing number of Singapore-China flights. On the same day, China said that further strengthening people-to-people exchanges between China and New Zealand is in the fundamental interests of the two peoplesThe two sides agreed to exempt each other from visas for ordinary passport holders, and look forward to the early entry into force of the relevant arrangement.
On the other hand, China's unilateral visa-free countries have ushered in an important expansion. On November 24, China announced that China has decided to implement a unilateral visa-free policy for holders of ordinary passports from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. According to the National Immigration Administration, on December 1, the first day of China's implementation of the visa-free entry policy for the above six countries, a total of 2,029 people from relevant countries entered China through visa-free. Statistics show that the number of Chinese entering the above six countries on that day increased by 12 percent compared with the previous day54%。
At the same time, many countries have also announced the implementation of visa-free or visa-free fee policies for China. For example, starting from December 1, Malaysia will implement visa-free facilitation measures for Chinese citizens within 30 days of entry. Earlier, Thailand's cabinet meeting announced that from September 25, 2023 to February 29, 2024, a five-month visa-free policy will be implemented for Chinese tourists, which allows Chinese citizens with valid passports or travel documents to stay in Thailand for no more than 30 days. In addition, Sri Lanka has officially implemented a visa-free policy for tourists from seven countries, including China, from November 28, which is valid until March 31, 2024.
According to industry insiders, the "Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand Visa-free Route** Line" connects Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, three highly attractive tourist destinations, and will open up new opportunities for tourism and business exchanges between Singapore, China and neighboring countries, attracting more international tourists.
The tourism market has injected new impetus.
Since the beginning of this year, the recovery of service consumption, especially tourism consumption, has been accelerated, and it has become an important force for stabilizing economic growth. The continuous optimization and implementation of relevant policies, as well as the continuous repair of the international tourism chain, will inject new momentum into the recovery of the inbound and outbound tourism market. After the above announcement, both the outbound and inbound tourism markets ushered in a wave of heating, which boosted the industry's confidence in the recovery of the tourism market, especially the inbound tourism market.
Tongcheng travel data shows that on December 7, after the announcement of the news that China and Singapore are expected to be exempt from visas for 30 days, as of 14 o'clock on the same day, Singapore's tourism attention was 18% higher than that of the same period the day before, and Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang became the provinces that paid the most attention to Singapore-related tourism information. The Qunar index shows that the search index in Singapore on the 7th increased by 4 times compared with last week. At the same time, the number of searches for Universal Studios Singapore tickets increased by 40% month-on-month.
After the release of the news of visa-free entry for 6 countries, the search volume of international air tickets for same-trip travel was rapid**, and the search volume of inbound air tickets on the same day was 12% month-on-month**. Among them, the search volume of air tickets from Malaysia was 3 times that of the previous day**, and the search volume of inbound air tickets from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain exceeded 100% month-on-month**.
According to the statistics of the National Immigration Administration, from December 1 to 3, the number of people entering relevant countries continued to rise, with nearly 180,000 people entered China, an increase of 39% per day from November 30. Among them, nearly 7,000 people came to China through visa-free, accounting for 39% of the total number of arrivals from the six countries.
The continuous optimization of the entry policy will attract more foreign tourists to travel to China, drive the growth of China's tourism consumption market, bring more business opportunities and employment opportunities to the tourism industry chain, and promote the integrated development of tourism and other related industries. Zhou Yongbo, a professor at Soochow University and vice president of Soochow Think Tank, said.
Inbound tourism is considered an incremental opportunity in the tourism market. "China's inbound tourism potential is huge, if it is raised to the international median, that is, it accounts for 1 of GDP5%, will bring at least more than 1.3 trillion yuan of growth space. Sun Jie, CEO of Trip.com Group, once said.
Make a real move to show your determination to open up.
China's door to opening up is only getting bigger. Experts said that the recent continuous optimization of the entry and exit management policy is a practical action to open up the "country", showing China's attitude of adhering to the outside world, and helping to enhance Sino-foreign economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges.
**The Consular Department recently said that in order to provide more channels and convenience for foreigners to travel to China, ** will actively adjust the visa and entry policies for foreigners to China, and resume the implementation of the unilateral visa-free policy. Nearly 100 embassies and consulates abroad have now achieved "on-the-go" processing, and by the end of this year, all embassies and consulates around the world will basically cancel visa application appointments.
According to the Department of Foreigners Management of the National Immigration Administration, in order to serve and ensure the country's high-level opening up, facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel, and promote foreign exchanges and cooperation, port visa business has been carried out in 99 open ports in 72 cities with a large number of entries across the country. In addition, a 24-hour transit visa-free policy has been implemented for citizens of all countries at all ports open to the outside world, and a 72,144-hour transit visa-free policy has been implemented for nationals from 54 countries at 31 ports in 23 cities in 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).
Zhou Yongbo said that the continuous optimization of the entry policy will not only enhance China's competitiveness in the international tourism market, but will also help strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries, and enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the people of various countries.