Indonesia Becomes A Pilot Destination For Chinese Tourists

JAKARTA - Indonesia is one of the 20 countries selected for a pilot program for Chinese tourist destinations to foreign countries.

Apart from Indonesia, several other countries included in the list of Chinese tourist destinations are Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Maldives, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba, and Argentina.

Even Chinese media, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 25, named Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam as the countries that warmly welcomed Chinese tourists during the 2023 Chinese New Year holiday season.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China (MCT) on Friday (20/1) launched a pilot program for sending Chinese tourists in groups to foreign countries.

The pilot program will be implemented starting February 6.

With the launch of the pilot program, travel agents in China are allowed to sell flight and hotel packages to tourists, according to a circular from MCT.

The decision was issued at the request of the Chinese Governing Council and the COVID-19 Response Task Force and based on consideration of measures to control COVID-19 and restore socioeconomic development.

MCT reminds tour organizers to comply with China's and destination countries' COVID-19 policies.

Tourists are also reminded to make sure they are not infected with COVID-19 before leaving for their destination country, pay attention to their own safety and health while traveling, and comply with the specified requirements after returning to their country of origin.

Trip.com, China's leading tourism service provider, said that half an hour after MCT released its announcement on Friday, search volume for overseas flights and hotels hit three-year highs on the platform's search engine.

In 2019, Chinese nationals made 155 million overseas trips, according to MCT data.