According to the National Immigration Administration on December 2nd, on the first day of the implementation of the visa free entry policy on December 1st, a total of 2029 people from relevant countries entered China through visa free entry. Among them, 1113 Malaysian nationals entered the country without visas, making it the country with the highest number of visa free entries among the six countries on that day. According to statistics, the number of people entering China without visas from six countries increased by 12.54% compared to the previous day.

"The expansion of the scope of visa free countries in the six countries can be said to be a milestone in the development history of inbound tourism, which is a huge benefit for the inbound tourism market." Zhou Xiaoguang, General Manager of Guilin Tang Dynasty International Travel Service, said, "This policy brings more confidence to inbound tourism practitioners and will promote the growth of inbound tourism business, especially in the European inbound tourism market. Visa free means that the most important issue of entry convenience is solved. It is expected that the Chinese inbound market will have a significant improvement next year, and the European market will have a more eye-catching performance."

Multiple listed airlines announce encrypted international routes

At around 16:30 on December 2nd, the AK168 flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Nanning, China arrived at Nanning Wuwei International Airport. This is the first flight in Nanning that China has implemented a unilateral visa free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries, including Malaysia, since the policy came into effect.

According to flight schedule data, as of December 3rd, based on the total number of inbound flights from the six countries, the number of inbound flights operated by Chinese airlines ranked from high to low, respectively, are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, etc.

With the official trial implementation of visa free services in six countries starting from December, multiple listed airlines will benefit from it.

The relevant person in charge of Southern Airlines told reporters that among the six visa free countries mentioned above, Southern Airlines has route layouts in five of them. Southern Airlines will continue to open, resume, and encrypt multiple international and regional routes from December this year to January next year.

Specifically, in terms of French routes, China Southern Airlines operates 5 flights per week from Guangzhou to Paris; On the German route, currently there are 3 flights per week from Guangzhou to Frankfurt, with plans to increase to 6 flights per week starting from December 15th; In terms of the Italian route, the Guangzhou Rome route currently operates 4 flights per week, while China Southern Airlines plans to increase to 6 flights per week from December 18th.

Southern Airlines also stated that in combination with the visa free policy and the demand for Spring Festival travel, it is currently promoting the plan to increase flights on this route during the Spring Festival travel period. In addition, China Southern Airlines currently does not have any routes from China to relevant cities in Spain, and there are currently no plans for related flights.

Officials from Hainan Airlines Holdings told reporters: Europe has always been one of Hainan Airlines' core markets. Currently, Hainan Airlines Holdings is actively resuming European routes and has resumed 5 historical routes to France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, with a weekly flight volume of 11. In addition, 2 new routes have been opened, with a weekly flight volume of 5. Currently, Hainan Airlines has 5 operating points in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, namely Berlin, Rome, Milan, Paris, and Malaysia Delhi has a weekly flight volume of 16 flights per week

The person in charge of Jixiang Airlines told Securities Daily that the company has currently opened flights from Zhengzhou to Milan, with two flights per week. A new flight from Shanghai to Athens will be launched in April next year.

Inbound tourism will be a new addition to the tourism market

Since the beginning of this year, driven by a series of favorable policies such as the orderly recovery of flight capacity, the inbound tourism market has steadily recovered.

According to the latest performance report released by Ctrip, in the third quarter of 2023, Ctrip Group's domestic and international business continued to show a strong recovery trend. Among them, in terms of inbound tourism, from January to October this year, inbound tourism orders increased by 125% year-on-year, approaching 80% of the same period in 2019. In the third quarter, inbound tourism orders increased by 34% month on month. In the third quarter, domestic hotel bookings increased by over 90% year-on-year, with a growth of over 70% compared to the same period in 2019.

At present, with the implementation of visa free policies in the six countries, the National Immigration Administration has launched port visa business in 99 open ports in 72 cities with large entry volumes nationwide, and optimized transit visa free and regional entry visa free policies.

IPG China Chief Economist Bai Wenxi said that it is expected that the favorable policies related to inbound tourism will continue to be released. Inbound tourism is considered a new addition to the tourism market. Beneficial for inbound tourism related enterprises and enterprises with inbound tourism service capabilities.

Spring and Autumn Tourism President Wang Wei told Securities Daily reporters that there is still a lot of room for improvement in inbound tourism in China. "For expanding the inbound tourism market, we mainly consider and improve from three aspects: first, whether foreign tourists will choose China before arriving in China; second, whether China has enough attraction for them, that is, whether the image and cultural promotion are sufficient; third, whether foreign tourists' travel experience is convenient enough after arriving in China."

The Spring and Autumn Tourism Immigration Department is adjusting and optimizing product routes. Currently, we are increasing our research and development efforts in various inbound tourism products. For example, we have designed multiple Shanghai micro tour routes and provided English tour guides. We will provide better services in the connection between international and domestic flights, luggage transfer, and other aspects. Next, we will use Spring and Autumn Airlines resources to guide inbound tourists in need to fly to Zhengzhou and Yunyun Experience more diverse Chinese culture in southern regions Zhou Weihong, Deputy General Manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, told Securities Daily reporters.

(Editor Yan Liliang)