Beijing, January 25, 2023(AseanAll)China has selected 20 countries, including seven ASEAN countries, to pilot the resumption of outbound group Tours.
According to a notice issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on January 20，China will allow overseas group tours to resume to 20 countries . The approval, effective from Feb 6, covers trips organised by tour agencies and online travel companies for Chinese citizens, it said.
The ministry said that a pilot program will take effect on Feb 6 to allow travel agencies to open outbound group travel for Chinese citizens to 20 countries - Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.
Among the 20 pilot countries, there are seven ASEAN countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, ,the Philippines，Malaysia, Singapore and Laos. Vietnam, another outbound tourist destination of China in the past, is not included. Politically unstable Myanmar and smaller, less tourist-rich Brunei are also not on the list.
In addition, Japan, South Korea and many European countries, which used to be major destinations for Chinese tourists, are not included in the list, which is believed to be related to their recent strict entry measures for Chinese tourists.
Travel agencies will also be allowed to offer flight and hotel packages to tourists starting the same time, according to the notice.
The decision was made at the request of the foreign affairs panel of the Chinese State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism, the country's top COVID-19 response task force, and was based on considerations over COVID-19 control measures and socioeconomic development, the ministry said.
The notice stipulates that tour organizers strictly obey official COVID-19 measures at home and abroad. Tourists will be urged to make sure they are not infected with the highly contagious disease before boarding flights, pay attention to their own safety and health and follow local COVID-19 rules during the journey, and comply with epidemic prevention requirements after returning to their hometown.
Previously on December 26, 2022, the National Health Commission of China announced that China would scrap the quarantine requirement for international arrivals starting on January 8，2023, as it downgraded management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B.
In 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese people made 155 million outbound trips, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China.
