In light of the country's optimized Covid reaction measures and loosened travel restrictions, China's outbound tourism market is displaying solid growth momentum and is anticipated to make a robust rebound.

Throughout the three-day New Year's Day vacation, foreign flight bookings increased by 145% year over year (y-o-y), according to the travel website Trip.com Group.

The portal anticipates a 260% spike in these bookings throughout the Spring Festival holiday later this month.

According to Flight AI, a database of the Trip.com Group, airline international passenger volume increased by 70% over the holiday, posting its highest performance since 2019.

China improved its Covid reaction measures in December intending to revive the economy and get people's lives back on track.

The most recent travel regulations, announced by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council on December 27, are set to go into effect on January 1 and exempt foreign travelers arriving in the Chinese mainland from quarantine and nucleic acid testing.

In response to the modifications, the National Immigration Administration announced on December 27 that it will resume processing passport applications, as well as those for business and travel licenses, for the special administrative areas of Hong Kong and Macao, on January 8.

"The policy changes will aid in the rebound of China's domestic and international travel sectors.

According to Xu Xiaolei, chief branding officer of China Youth Travel Service, a travel portal with its headquarters in Beijing, "My company aims to gain from the new legislative revisions."

Xu claimed that after authorities stated on December 26 that Covid management will be demoted from Class A to Class B, effective January 8, consultancies for international travel as well as searches for visa information, aircraft tickets, and hotels rose on the platform.

"On the platform, visa-related searches multiplied by five that day. Overseas travel was more popular among our users, he continued.

The regulation changes would aid in China's inbound tourism sector's recovery, according to travel website LY.com, which reported that on December 27 international airline reservations increased by 400% over the previous month.

Beginning on December 27, there was a 100% increase in visa consultations for two straight days.

According to data from the online travel service Fliggy, after the policy changes on December 27, searches for international flights on the site climbed eight-fold, and views of its digital visa center increased 8.3-fold year over year.

According to LY.com, customers favor South-East Asian vacation spots like Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. From January 8 to January 21, bookings for flights to these locations increased by 277% over the same period last year.

The resurgence of the inbound and outbound tourism markets, however, has some industry insiders wary.

Outbound tourism may experience its first wave of recovery during the Spring Festival holiday later this month, according to Gu Huimin, a professor at Beijing International Studies University's School of Tourism Sciences. However, the recovery will also depend on the epidemic situation and the accessibility of flights and visas.

While China has improved its Covid regulations and loosened entrance requirements, several nations and regions still demand that visitors from China submit to a nucleic acid test upon arrival, according to the travel website Fliggy.

For instance, the United States recently announced that all visitors, regardless of age, must obtain a negative nucleic acid test result from 48 hours before leaving the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, or Macau.

People traveling from China must have a negative nucleic acid test result, according to announcements from Japan, South Korea, and Italy.

China is prepared to increase communication with the rest of the world community and cooperate to defeat COVID-19, the Foreign Affairs Ministry responded.

It stated that it does not think the immigration restrictions certain nations have placed on visitors from China are supported by science.

The ministry declared that it vehemently condemns any political deception used to manage epidemics and that appropriate actions will be made under the concept of reciprocity for various circumstances.

A 2022 research by the China Tourism Academy states that people have put off plans for overseas travel as a result of Covid restrictions in the past three years.

According to the estimate, the number of outbound visits may have reached 26 to 30 million in 2022, or around 20% more than in 2019.