On Tuesday, the Chinese immigration authority said it would resume issuing passports and visas for mainland residents to travel overseas, including entry permits for Hong Kong.
Data from multiple Chinese travel booking platforms also saw a surge in searches for international flights after China announced a reopening of its borders from January 8, scrapping Covid-19 tests and quarantine for inbound travellers, only requiring a negative pre-departure test taken within 48 hours.
Ctrip.com, a leading Chinese online travel agency, saw a 10-fold increase in searches for top international destinations within 30 minutes of Monday night’s announcement.
Data from Tongcheng Travel, a Hong Kong-listed travel agency, showed the real-time search volume for international flight tickets increased by 850 per cent following the announcement, while searches for visas also increased by 10 times. Qunar, another travel platform, also saw a seven-fold increase in search volumes on Monday night.
The top searches on these platforms included Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.
Macau requires no quarantine for travellers from mainland China and Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has also said the city plans to reopen its border with the mainland by mid-January.
A Korean Air representative said flights between South Korea and China would be increased from nine a week in December to 15 a week in January.
“We have been gradually increasing the number of our flights between Korea and China to prepare for the expected increase in demand, as China relaxes its Covid-related restrictions,” the Korean Air representative said.
“However, we currently don’t have plans for further increases based on [Monday’s] announcement.”
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Lan Xiang, director of Qunar’s Big Data Research Institute, predicted that it would still take some time for international flights to return to pre-Covid levels and prices would remain high as a result.
“For routes with a large number of flights, such as Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, air ticket prices may rise. With the implementation of the policy and the restoration of the operating capacity of airlines, the summer of 2023 may see a peak in travel,” he was quoted as saying in a report from CAAC News, an industry news service.
Airfares from China to top Asian destinations did not increase significantly following Monday’s announcement, according to Tongcheng Travel.
A one-way ticket from Shanghai to Tokyo will cost anywhere between 1,065 yuan (US$153) and 4,262 yuan (US$612) over the next three weeks, while flights to Seoul will cost between 986 and 2,140 yuan.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China did not respond to questions about the plan to resume international flights.
But some Chinese travel agencies said it remained to be seen how quickly international travel would resume.
“There are no international tours yet, as they have all been suspended because of the pandemic prevention measures and controls,” said one staff member at Beijing-based China International Travel Service.
“They won’t resume quickly, we have to wait and see what the market response is, but now there is no response at all, no tourist inquiries, so it is impossible to arrange travel routes.”
Those wishing to travel to Japan will also face new curbs, with Chinese travellers being required to undergo a Covid-19 test upon arrival and to quarantine for seven days if they test positive.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also said the government would limit the number of flights to and from China as it battled a surge in cases.
Many Chinese – both living at home and abroad, said it was too soon to think about overseas travel.
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Xiao Chen, 25, a software engineer, said he would not be travelling overseas before Lunar New Year on January 22 because his passport had expired.
“I don’t think I’ll be travelling in the short term, but I bought a ticket redemption voucher to Okinawa earlier and expect to travel overseas in March or April next year,” he said.
Dylan Zhao, 25, a freelance wine agent living in France, said his parents would like to visit France to attend his graduation ceremony in May but they had not obtained a visa yet as the French consulate in Beijing was currently closed for visa services.
“Both my parents are not comfortable with the overseas pandemic now, but their attitude might change after the border reopening,” he added.
“They may also go to some neighbouring countries, such as Japan and Korea, because the flight distance is shorter.”
Additional reporting by Wendy Wu, Seong Hyeon Choi and Guo Rui
