According to China’s Ministry of Public Security, it handled nearly 2.5 million trips abroad by Chinese nationals during the Lunar New Year holiday.
China has seen a significant increase in demand for overseas travel after it downgraded its COVID-19 management. The country’s immigration authorities handled cross-border trips for 2.459 million citizens during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday, according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Public Security. In which, in the first 6 days alone, this number was 2,392 million arrivals, an increase of nearly 124% over the same period.
Chinese tourists are welcomed by Thai authorities at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand on January 9, 2023. (Photo: Xinhua News Agency)
In a recent meeting, China’s National Immigration Administration asked immigration authorities across the country to correctly implement the new requirements for immigration management when the country entered the country. new phase of epidemic prevention.
Data from travel platform Ctrip shows that, during the first long holiday of the Lunar New Year in 2023 after the resumption of cross-border tourism, overseas travel demand by Chinese people increased sharply.
Total outbound travel orders soared 640% year-on-year, while overseas hotel bookings and cross-border flight bookings both increased more than fourfold. The data of the Qunar platform also shows that, this year, the number of ticket bookings going abroad increased by 6.7 times compared to 2022.
According to statistics, Bangkok, Chiang Mai of Thailand, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, Bali of Indonesia and Manila of the Philippines are the favorite destinations for Chinese tourists and all are in Southeast Asia.
In particular, according to Ctrip’s “Tet Tourism Summary Report 2023”, the number of flight bookings to Bali increased 30 times, Singapore more than 8 times, Manila more than 5 times, Bangkok and Phuket more than 4 times, Chiang Mai and Kuala Lumpur increased nearly 3 times over the same period.
Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China shows that 308 million people traveled domestically during the Tet holiday, an increase of more than 23%, or 88.6% of the same period in 2019. prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.