Inbound, outbound flights bounce back rapidly following China’s border reopening

A flight from Toronto landed in Guangzhou at 12:17 pm on Sunday, making it the first inbound flight after China lifted its entry restrictions starting Sunday, meaning all passengers no longer need to take a nucleic acid test on arrival or undergo hotel quarantine. 

The number of inbound and outbound flights seen on online travel platforms surged after China removed COVID-related entry restrictions effective on Sunday.

The number of inbound and outbound ticket orders for Sunday rose 628 percent year-on-year, hitting a peak since March 2020. Inbound flight orders accounted for 48 percent and outbound flight orders accounted for 52 percent, according to data from Tongcheng Travel sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

“Because of the epidemic, I did not visit my parents in Shenyang [in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province] for three years,” a woman surnamed Zhou, who has lived in South Korea’s Gimhae for more than 20 years, told the Global Times.

Zhou said she is planning to visit her parents with her husband and two children. The big family will then travel in China together. Their current plan is to go to warm places like South China’s Hainan, Guangdong or East China’s Fujian. 

While Zhou is among those who are still planning, many others have already taken off.

According to data that travel platform Qunar sent to the Global Times, the average ticket price paid for entry was 4,446 yuan ($651.2) with departure dates during the Spring Festival travel season from Sunday to February 15, mostly from South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.

On online travel platform Trip.com, the number of flight ticket bookings from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland on Sunday rose 290 percent month-on-month, while bookings for hotels in the Chinese mainland soared 166 percent. 

China received 65.7 million international tourists in 2019, ranking fourth among the top destinations, according to the World Tourism Barometer and Statistical Annex published in January 2020.

While the number of inbound arrivals surged, Chinese tourists also started their outbound sightseeing after a three-year hiatus.

Jiang Fuquan, managing director of travel agency China Comfort in Hekou, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, told the Global Times on Sunday that the excitement is being felt across the border.

A brief ceremony on Sunday morning there marked the resumption of China-Vietnam cross-border travel, with long lines of people waiting to get through the checkpoint seen by Global Times reporters on the spot.

The travel agency’s partners in Vietnam including scenic attractions and hotels are willing to offer enticing discounts, Jiang said, and she received a flurry of calls from them immediately after the border opening announcement was made public. 

A manager surnamed Fang at a travel agency in Serbia told the Global Times on Sunday that the agency has had a lot of inquiries about tours and accommodation at ski resorts, such as Kopaonik.

“Snow in Serbia’s ski resorts is of good quality, and the price is much more affordable than ski resorts in Switzerland, France and other countries. Many people who had planned to come to Serbia failed due to the pandemic,” said Fang. 

The manager also noted that Serbia is visa-free for Chinese tourists. Tourists holding ordinary Chinese passports can enter Serbia without a visa for 30 days.

Data from Trip.com showed that “friendly destinations” are more popular among Chinese travelers. Since December 27, 2022, the number of visa applications for Singapore has increased 30 times year-on-year. Visa applications for Malaysia and other countries have increased by nearly 100 percent month-on-month on Trip.com.

Hotel bookings on Trip.com by tourists from the mainland surged 500 percent year-on-year, with Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Phnom Penh, Milan and other cities seeing significant increases in bookings.

On Tongcheng Travel, Chinese tourists who booked outbound tickets on Sunday are flying to more than 100 cities in 53 countries and regions around the world.

The longest outbound journey was a 19,662-kilometer flight between Shanghai and Buenos Aires, with a transfer in Amsterdam, according to Trip.com. The most expensive flight was a first-class ticket from South China’s Guangzhou to Los Angeles for more than 90,000 yuan.