China Expected To Reopen International Travel Mid Next Year

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JAKARTA - It is estimated that China will only open access for foreigners in the middle of next year after studying the policies taken by several other countries in Asia.

Asian countries are likely to reopen international travel in the next three months, while a more cautious China is expected to open in the middle of next year after studying the experiences of other countries, Ctrip CEO Liang Jianzhang was quoted as saying by local media on Saturday.

The boss of the online platform, the largest travel package service provider in China, is anxiously awaiting the implementation of the China-Hong Kong quarantine-free agreement.

Liang said the aviation market in Europe had recovered 70 percent compared to the situation before the COVID-19 pandemic.

He predicts the aviation market in Europe will be the same as the 2019 situation in the 2022 summer holiday.

The occupancy rate of airplanes in the United States in October alone has reached 80 percent, said Liang, who admitted that he had spent months traveling and meeting tourism industry stakeholders in the US, UK, Australia, Spain and Portugal.

"They are looking forward to the return of Asian tourists, especially from China," he said.

According to him, the global world is waiting for China to reopen its border doors while several other countries have reopened their borders even though the pandemic is increasing and new cases continue to emerge.

The Chinese authorities themselves stated that they had implemented a zero-case COVID-19 policy by continuing to prevent imported cases to protect their citizens. However, the policy will still adjust to the global situation.

Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) Gao Fu said the zero-case policy would be in effect until at least the end of spring 2022.

In the years before the pandemic, China made a very significant contribution to the world of global tourism. Indonesia also gets the most foreign tourists from China.