China’s resumption of group tours to 20 countries clouded by Covid fears and high prices

Name: Cambodia welcomes its first tour group from China since Covid pandemic
Uploaded: 2023-02-09T06:05:58.000Z
Duration: 1 min 35 s
Description: Cambodia welcomes its first tour group from China since Covid pandemic

China on Monday began a trial for ‘flight ticket + hotel’ packages to 20 nations, including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore

But industry insiders say Chinese tourists are still wary about coronavirus outbreaks overseas and high prices for flights

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China was also the world’s largest source of outbound tourists before the pandemic. Photo:EPA-EFE

Salina Li

Published: 2:05pm, 9 Feb 2023

China’s travel agencies have resumed promotion of overseas package tours in an effort to jump start the tourism sector, but they could face a hard time finding customers ready to travel abroad.

A trial for “flight ticket + hotel” packages to select countries started on Monday for the first time since China emerged from three years of coronavirus isolation on January 8.

Southeast Asian nations like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are among the 20 destinations included on the list that was decided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

“The resumption has definitely brought a positive atmosphere to the industry,” said Zou Feng, general manager of Guangdong CTS (Shenzhen) Travel Agency and the deputy director of the Guangdong Tourism Association. “From the perspective of tourist volume, Southeast Asia is the largest, so we are very happy to be able to resume tourism there.

“We expect tourism in 2023 to hopefully recover to about 50 per cent of the level in 2019.”

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Cambodia welcomes its first tour group from China since Covid pandemic

China closed its borders to nearly all travellers in March 2020, and imposed strict quarantine measures under its zero-Covid strategy, hammering the tourism sector.