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BEIJING, March 14 (Reuters) – China will open its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing all categories of visas from Wednesday.
The lifting of this latest cross-border control measure to protect against COVID-19 comes after authorities declared victory over the virus last month.
Tourism industry insiders do not expect a massive influx of visitors or a significant boost to the economy anytime soon. In 2019, international tourism revenues accounted for only 0.9% of China’s gross domestic product.
But the restoration of visas for tourists in Beijing january In May, it withdrew its advice to citizens against foreign travel, signaling a broader push to normalize two-way travel between China and the world.
Areas in China that did not require a visa before the pandemic will return to visa-free entry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. This will include the southern tourist island of Hainan, long a favorite of Russians, as well as cruise ships passing through the port of Shanghai.
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Visa-free entry to Guangdong, China’s most prosperous province, will also be restored for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau, a boon for high-end hotels popular with international business travelers.
“The announcement that China will resume issuing almost all types of visas for foreigners starting tomorrow has led executives to visit China-based teams, customers and suppliers and explore new business opportunities on the mainland. trip positive for Australian businesses that want to market,” said Vaughn Barber, chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in China.
Chinese events open to foreign visitors – such as the China Development Forum in Beijing later this month and the Shanghai auto show in April – are gradually resuming. The quadrennial Asian Games will also be held in the eastern city of Hangzhou in September after being postponed last year due to China’s COVID concerns.
But future visitors may not immediately arrive in droves.
A global survey by the Pew Research Center in September showed that negative views of China among western democracies have hardened due to concerns about human rights and Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, as well as doubts about COVID-19.
“In terms of tourism, China is no longer a hot spot,” said the head of China International Travel Services in Beijing, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“Commercially, the willingness of foreigners to hold events in China has also decreased post-Covid, as a lot of things here are influenced by politics that scare them.”
GEOPOLITICS
With further easing of controls on outbound tourism, China has added 40 more countries to its list where group tours are allowed, bringing the total number of countries to 60.
But the list still includes Japan, South Korea, Australia and USA is an exception. Washington Russia and from Ukraine to China in the South China Sea military since it faced Beijing until its existence, the relations between these countries deepened.
“It’s common to use tourist visas to come to China for business, but I don’t know how keen institutional investors will be to do that,” said Duncan Clark, founder of BDA, a Beijing-based investment consultancy.
A total of 115.7 million cross-border in and out of China in 2022 trip and about 4.5 million of them are foreigners.
In contrast, China totaled 670 million in 2019 before the arrival of COVID trip and 97.7 million were foreigners.
Reporting by Bernard Orr, Wang Jing, Joe Cash, Sophie Yu, Brenda Goh, Li Qiaoyi and Ellen Zhang; Written by Ryan Woo; Edited by Christopher Cushing, Edwina Gibbs and Simon Cameron-Moore
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Joe Cash
2023-03-14 10:46:28
Source – reuters
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