South Korea and Australia are among a group of regional neighbors notably absent after China announced another 40 countries to which it will resume outbound group tours from 15 March.
However, Vietnam and Nepal are among those to be included, according to China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, adding to the 20 countries that began welcoming Chinese tours in early February.
Aside from South Korea and Australia, the latest list of 40 countries also excludes Japan and the United States, with all four nations having endured rocky relations with China in recent times.
The full list of nations to which outbound group tours will resume this week is: Nepal, Brunei, Vietnam, Mongolia, Iran, Jordan, Tanzania, Namibia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Serbia, Croatia, France, Greece, Spain, Iceland , Albania, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Slovenia, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, Dominica, El Salvador, Dominica and the Bahamas.
“Starting from 15 March 2023, national travel agencies and online travel companies will be resumed on a pilot basis to operate outbound group tours and ‘air ticket + hotel’ business for Chinese citizens to the second batch of relevant countries,” the Ministry said.
“Travel agencies and online travel companies can from now on carry out product release, publicity and promotion and other preparations.”
Countries named on the original list of 20 countries, which saw group tours from China resume operations as of 6 February 2023, include Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, UAE, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.
As per that first batch, the Ministry said on Friday that tours to the second batch of nations will be required to fulfil four specific tasks, including strengthening responsibility for the safety and interests of tourists, implementing epidemic prevention and control measures, standardizing business activities and strengthening supervision and law enforcement.
All group tours must be reported on the organizer’s relevant platform and straying from the schedule or beyond the scope of the country list is not allowed.
Travel agencies must refrain from “arranging tourists to visit or participating in projects or activities that violate the country’s laws, regulations and social morality,” and are expected to “effectively maintain the order of the tourism market.”
All travel agencies across China were ordered to suspend operations in late January 2020 in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
They were granted permission to resume in February after Beijing lifted all border restrictions for arrivals from Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan on 8 January. Most restrictions on foreign visitors were lifted as well other than the provision of a negative COVID test result.
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