On January 28, China and Thailand signed a mutual visa exemption agreement, which will officially enter into force on March 1, 2024.
On January 25, China and Singapore signed a mutual visa exemption agreement, which will officially enter into force on February 9, 2024.
In the past few days, the visa-free benefits have continued to be released, and the attention of "new Malaysia and Thailand" inbound and outbound tourism has been high.
The Spring Festival is just in time, and the Spring Festival is approaching. With the support of policies, the growth of international flight capacity, and the continuous rise in the popularity of inbound and outbound travel, it is expected to form a short-term peak season.
Mutual visa exemption policy helps.
The popularity of "Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand" inbound and outbound tourism has risen.
As soon as the news of China's mutual visa exemption with Singapore and Thailand came out, the "new Malaysia and Thailand" tourism boomed**.
One hour after the announcement of the visa exemption policy between China and Singapore, the search volume for air tickets in Singapore and the number of hotel searches on Fliggy's platform increased by more than 15 times month-on-month, and the number of hotel searches increased by more than 6 times month-on-month.
On the day when China and Thailand officially signed the mutual visa exemption agreement, the search popularity of Thailand-related keywords on Ctrip's platform increased by more than 7 times compared with the previous day, of which air tickets and hotels increased by more than 6 times compared with the previous day.
Favorable policies have brought about "two-way travel", and the popularity of tourists from Singapore and Thailand to China has also been rapid**.
In the international version of Ctripcom, the search popularity of keywords related to "China" has increased. Among them, the search popularity of Singapore tourists in China has increased by more than 20%, and the search popularity of Thai tourists for China-related keywords has increased by more than 4 times month-on-month.
On January 26, passengers queued up for check-in at Tianjin Binhai International Airport. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ran.
"Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand" has always been the first choice for Chinese tourists to travel abroad, and the implementation of the mutual visa exemption policy between the three countries and China will further strengthen the people-to-people exchanges between the regions.
Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, said that this move is of great significance to enhance the commercial, economic, trade, people-to-people and tourism exchanges between China and "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand". "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand" has formed a "first-class tourism belt" for Chinese tourists, and the synergy effect of the three countries in expanding China's source markets will be further highlighted.
According to Ctrip data, up to now, the travel orders of Chinese tourists to the three countries of "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand" during the Spring Festival have increased by more than 15 times year-on-year. "New Malaysia and Thailand" tourists to China tourism orders increased by 9 times year-on-year.
On January 30, in the departure hall of Heihe Water Transport Port, the staff helped tourists to handle foreign currency exchange business. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei.
"Overtime" on international routes during the Spring Festival holiday
In-depth travel in Europe has become a new direction for outbound tourism during the Spring Festival.
During the Spring Festival holiday, many people choose to go abroad. According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, more than 2,500 new international scheduled flights and overtime charter flights will be added during the Spring Festival travel period, most of which are scheduled to be carried out around the Spring Festival holiday.
The increase in flights directly led to the early heating up of international flight bookings during the Spring Festival. According to a number of ** booking platforms, the search popularity of international air tickets departing between February 8 (the 29th day of the lunar month) and 17 (the eighth day of the first lunar month) increased by nearly 7 times year-on-year, exceeding the level of the same period in 2019.
On January 30, at the Palais de Blogne, France, the "Hello! At the "China" tourism promotion meeting, guests experienced Chinese tea. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Jing.
With the increase in routes to Europe, the popularity of European travel has increased significantly, and in-depth travel to Europe has become a new direction for outbound travel during the Spring Festival this year. Compared with the 2023 "National Day holiday", the Nordic countries have risen significantly in the rankings. **According to the booking platform, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland all rose more than 10 places in the rankings. Going to Northern Europe to see the Northern Lights has become a popular item this holiday.
In addition to traditional popular countries such as France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, the number of air ticket bookings to Croatia increased by 1 compared to last year's "National Day holiday".1 times, the number of air ticket bookings to Greece increased by 70% compared with last year's "National Day holiday".
With the opening of a number of new international routes by Air China and China Eastern Airlines, the popularity along the "Belt and Road" is also rising. **According to the booking platform, the search volume of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt has all increased by more than 1 times compared to December 2023, and the UAE and Egypt are among the top 20 hotels in advance booking.
On January 30, people waited in the departure hall of the Heihe water transport port to enter the exit channel. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei.
The enthusiasm of the people for outbound travel is high, and the entry and exit halls in many places have also ushered in the first peak. The average daily entry and exit business volume in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province exceeds 5,000 pieces, and Qingdao, Shandong Province has opened a special entry and exit session for primary and secondary school students for students who plan to travel during the winter vacation.
According to data from the Shanghai Airport Border Inspection Station, three days before the Spring Festival, there were more than 1,250 international passenger flights in and out of Pudong International Airport, and 24 people entered and exited370,000 passengers. Capital Airport is expected to exceed 1.4 million international and regional flight passengers during the Spring Festival travel period, with a daily average of about 350,000 people.
On January 30, Chinese and foreign tourists waited in the departure hall of Heihe Water Transport Port to enter the exit channel. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xie Jianfei.
A number of entry facilitation measures have been added.
During the Spring Festival, inbound travel orders increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.
The continuous release of the visa-free policy, coupled with the recent introduction of a number of new entry facilitation measures, has also further promoted foreign tourists to travel to China, driving the inbound tourism market during the Spring Festival.
According to the data, inbound travel orders during the Spring Festival in 2024 will increase by more than 10 times year-on-year, and the main source countries are Japan, the United States, South Korea, Malaysia, Germany, Thailand, etc.
Up to now, China has concluded visa exemption agreements covering different passport types with more than 150 countries, agreements or arrangements with more than 40 countries on visa simplification, and full visa exemption with more than 20 countries, including the Maldives and Kazakhstan.
Qi Qi, an expert from the China Civil Aviation High-quality Development Research Center, said that because of the facilitation of visas, more international travelers will come to China to appreciate China's different cultures and travel experiences.
On December 1 last year, China tried a unilateral visa-free policy for six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. As of January 9 this year, a total of 1470,000 person-times, showing an overall upward trend, providing strong services to facilitate foreign personnel to come to China for business and tourism.
Since January 11, five measures to facilitate foreign personnel to come to China have been officially implemented, further breaking through the blockages of foreign personnel in China for business, study, and tourism.
Chi Jingyang, director of the Border Inspection and Management Department of the National Immigration Administration, said that with the development of global economy and trade, the orderly resumption of international flights, and the gradual active flow of cross-border people, the number of arrivals is expected to continue to grow in 2024.
On January 26, passengers walked into the Tianfu Airport High-speed Rail Station of Tianfu Airport Comprehensive Transportation Transfer Center (GTC). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Hongjing.
Visa-free ≠ can go directly.
You need to know this practical knowledge before you go.
Visa-free eliminates a lot of procedures before going abroad, but visa-free does not mean "just go", and these outbound travel knowledge needs to be understood before traveling.
*Quoted from Beijing**.
Fluid, dynamic, and full of tension.
According to data from the National Immigration Administration, in 2023, 42.4 billion people entered and exited, an increase of 266 year-on-year5%。
With the further facilitation of entry and exit policies such as visa-free, the pace of international travel will be faster and faster, and there will be more and more people going in the same direction!
Editors: Wang Ying, Chen Shuo.
Final review: Chen Jingchao.
Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News, Beijing**, People's Liberation Army Daily, etc.