China lifted a ban on group travel to a slew of countries including the US, UK, Australia, South Korea and Japan, in a major relaxation of travel restrictions that’s set to boost the global tourism market.  

The resumption of group tours will start immediately on Thursday (Aug 10), according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The easing applies to all travel agencies and online platforms across the country, it said.

The move could accelerate a recovery in the global tourism industry, which has been sluggish amid a slow rebound in flight capacity to and from China, one of the largest sources of tourists before Covid. Slowing economic growth has also hampered a rebound in overseas visitors as many Chinese prefer to stay at home.

One of the big beneficiaries is likely to be Japan. In 2019, Chinese tourists accounted for about one third of Japan’s international visitors, spending more than US$12 billion in the country - the highest among all overseas markets, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization. In the first half of this year, the number of Chinese travellers in Japan only returned to 13% of the pre-pandemic levels. 

The recovery in China’s international aviation market has also been slow. In July, the capacity of the country’s outbound flights was still about half of the 2019 levels, while domestic flight capacity had exceeded the pre-pandemic levels, according to data from tracking platform Cirium. 

Since China reopened from three years of Covid Zero curbs at the start of the this year, the country has resumed group tours to dozens of countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and South America. But bans on countries like the US, UK, Australia, South Korea and Japan have been maintained until now amid geopolitical tensions. 

  - Bloomberg