From 0:00 on January 8, China's policy of canceling entry nucleic acid testing and centralized isolation, and optimizing personnel exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau officially came into effect. Same-trip travel data shows that the number of inbound and outbound air ticket orders for travel on January 8 increased by 628% year-on-year, setting a peak since March 2020. Among them, inbound flight orders accounted for 48%, and outbound flight orders accounted for 52%. On the same day, Chinese outbound tourists who booked air tickets through the same journey flew to more than 100 cities in 53 countries and regions around the world.
With the liberalization of entry policies and the continuous recovery of various tourism products such as international flights, Chinese travelers are turning their attention to the world again. According to Ctrip data, since December 27, from the point of view of bookings by users in mainland China, the most popular destinations for cross-border flights include Macau, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Phnom Penh.
More than half of the above-mentioned destinations are from Asia, and there are no special restrictions on the entry of Chinese tourists. Data from Ctrip Visa also shows that policy-friendly destinations are more popular with tourists. Since December 27, the number of Singapore visa business orders has increased by more than 30 times year-on-year, and the month-on-month increase has reached 123%; visa bookings for Malaysia and other countries have also increased by nearly 100% month-on-month.
Thailand's tourism market, which has recently shouted "China is back", is even more favored by Chinese tourists. Since December 27, among the hotel reservations made by mainland tourists on Ctrip for a stay of more than 20 days, Thailand's hotel reservations have accounted for almost half of the country, accounting for 44%. Spending the first long vacation in Thailand after the liberalization of entry policies has become the choice of many mainland tourists.
From the perspective of hotel reservations, since the official announcement of the immigration policy, the number of room nights booked by mainland tourists in overseas hotels has increased significantly compared with the same period last year, an increase of more than 500%, and the price of room night reservations has increased by more than 20% year-on-year. Bookings in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Phnom Penh, Milan and other cities have increased significantly month-on-month, and many of these cities are also from destinations with friendly policies for Chinese tourists. On the reservation side, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Ningbo, and other inland cities make the most reservations for overseas hotels.
Recently, some countries have adjusted the entry epidemic prevention and control requirements for passengers departing from China, adding pre-entry negative nucleic acid certificates, landing tests, etc. Travelers on the same journey are advised to check the relevant epidemic prevention requirements and visa requirements of transit countries and destinations before travel, plan their itineraries reasonably, and avoid being affected by foreign epidemic prevention policies. Outbound tourists still need to pay attention to personal protection to avoid re-infection. In addition, there are differences in the level of medical treatment and response to the new crown in different countries. Passengers can prepare a small amount of daily medicines before travel in case of emergencies.