After 'decisive Covid victory', China reopens borders to tourists

Since abandoning Covid Zero, Communist Party has been prioritising a return to strong growth, with China's new Premier Li Qiang calling for more effort to meet a 5 per cent expansion target for 2023

China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued from Wednesday. The removal of this last cross-border control measure imposed to guard against Covid-19 comes after authorities last month declared “decisive victory” over the virus.

Since abandoning Covid Zero, the Communist Party has been prioritising a return to strong growth, with China’s new Premier Li Qiang calling for more effort to meet a 5 per cent expansion target for 2023 at a meeting of the national legislature this week.

Chinese events open to foreign visitors — such as the China Development Forum in Beijing later this month and the Shanghai Autoshow in April — are gradually resuming. The once-every-four-years Asian Games will also take place in the eastern city of Hangzhou in September after being postponed last year due to China’s Covid concerns. 

But prospective visitors might not immediately arrive in droves.

The resumption of visa issuance for tourist marks a broader push by Beijing to normalise two-way travel between China and the world, having withdrawn its advisory to citizens against foreign travel in January.

Only 115.7 million inbound and outbound trips were made in 2022 — less than a fifth of those flown in 2019 before the pandemic took hold, according to data from China’s Ministry of Public Security. Mainland residents made 64.6 million trips last year, also about a fifth of pre-Covid levels.

Travellers from China were among the biggest spenders globally pre-pandemic, and their absence hammered tourism-reliant nations from Southeast Asia to Europe. The country itself was also seeing a steady increase in foreign tourists before Covid, with market and consumer data provider Statista showing roughly 145.3 million international arrivals in China in 2019, up from 141.2 million the previous year. In 2019, international tourism receipts accounted for 0.9 per cent of China’s gross domestic product.

Business travellers have been able to apply for visas for China since January 8, when the country took the first major step toward reopening its once-busy borders by scrapping mandatory quarantine upon arrival. Since then, foreign nationals have been able to apply for business visas to travel to China for commercial activities. Areas in China that required no visas before the pandemic will revert to visa-free entry. This will include the southern tourist island of Hainan, a long-time favourite destination among Russians, as well as cruise ships passing through Shanghai port.

Visa-free entry for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau to China’s most prosperous province, Guangdong, will also resume, a boon particularly to high-end hotels popular among international business travellers. Unfavourable views of China among western democracies have hardened due to concerns over human rights and Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, as well as suspicions surrounding handling of Covid-19, a global survey by the Pew Research Centre.