CHINA. In a key development, China’s State Council announced today that it will reduce international quarantine days to ‘7+3’ (seven days in a dedicated quarantine facility and three days of home monitoring) from the long-standing ‘14+7’ requirement.
In related positive news for China’s travel retail sector, domestic tourism is surging in the wake of the pandemic being brought back under control on the Mainland.
The government has been piloting the 7+3 policy in selected regions over recent few months and will now roll it out nationwide as the COVID situation continues to improve.
The South China Morning Post described the revised quarantine measures as the biggest changes to the rules since China closed its borders in March 2020.
In a note, BofA Global Research said: “The relaxation is a welcoming sign that the worst for international travel is passing, but we note the experience from Hong Kong suggests a very tepid recovery with international flight capacity likely staying tight to ensure overall zero-COVID policy is achieved. We see the Party Congress later this year remaining the key event for any change in the zero-COVID approach.”
The South China Morning Post said that the latest easing of restrictions is the second major adjustment of quarantine rules for overseas arrivals to China within two months – eight major cities cut central quarantine from 14 days to ten for some groups in April.
Foreign nationals are now also allowed to visit their Chinese immediate family members or a foreigner with permanent residence in the Mainland.
The South China Morning Post added that international flight restrictions look set to be relaxed, as authorities seek to ease the pressure on the aviation industry caused by China’s strict dynamic zero-COVID policy response.
China Southern Airlines is set to resume seven routes this month, according to the news source, with total weekly international flights going up from 36 to 48, and countries connected rising from 20 to 27.
In related positive news, state-owned Global Times reported a strong recovery in China’s domestic tourism sector following the easing of COVID-related restrictions.
That spells good news for Hainan’s offshore duty free sector, which was hit hard by the earlier lockdowns on the Mainland.
In a report today, Global Times said, “After two months of lockdown, Shanghai tourists swarmed Sanya, in the tropical island of Hainan, with sales of flight ticket growing 1.5 times this weekend compared to last week. Some airlines even changed to bigger airplanes to ferry the booming number of tourists from the financial center to sun-kissed Sanya.”
In another story, Global Times quoted data from Chinese online travel platform Trip.com which showed that in the week ended 21 June, cross-provincial group tour bookings rose +291% from the previous week. Cross-provincial hotel bookings were up +151% on a weekly basis.
The report noted that Shanghai declared victory over the virus on Saturday, while Beijing will allow primary and secondary school students to resume in-person classes from Monday.
“In June, China’s epidemic prevention yielded fruitful results, putting the economy on a fast track of recovery, which is expected to lead to ‘explosive’ growth during the summer vacation for China’s tourism industry, experts said,” Global Times noted.
