Authorities in China have decided to abolish the ban on tours to over 70 locations, thus boosting travel and airline stocks in Asia.
The decision has been confirmed by China’s Culture and Tourism Ministry, while the same noted that group tours will resume to dozens of locations in Asia-Pacific, as well as Europe, Africa, and North America, VisaGuide.World reports.
Among the top travel destinations in Asia-Pacific were Japan, Australia, and South Korea. Besides on the list were Qatar, Lebanon, Oman, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Israel, among others.
South Korean airline and travel stocks saw the most significant reaction, with a tour agency, as well as airline and hotel stocks, all marking a notable increase.
According to a CNBC report, travel agency Lotte Tour Development experienced a notable surge of more than 25 percent in its shares, while South Korean airlines also saw significant increases, with Asiana Airlines surging by seven percent and Korea Airlines by 3.1 percent.
China’s recent decision to allow group tours to South Korea comes for the first time in six years, following the ban imposed on such tours in 2017 in response to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea.
The easing of group travel restrictions is also expected to help the further growth of China’s economy.
“It’s a milestone for the full resumption of the outbound travel, and will also strongly push the resumption of international flights, especially for Japan, Korea, the US,” deputy general manager at Spring Tour, Zhou Weihong, told the Guardian.
Based on a report by Travel Tomorrow, outbound travel accounted for only 1.58 percent of all Chinese tourism agencies, thus registering a total of 318,600 outbound trips. This compared to a total of 155 million Chinese visitors to other countries in 2019.
China’s decision has been welcomed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, together with tourism ministers in South Korea and Australia, while considering that it would boost their economies.
“This is another positive step towards the stabilization of our relationship with China,” Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell pointed out.
As of July, international flights in and out of China have recovered to just 53 percent of 2019 levels. The figures show that expectations that the travel demand would notably recover after the re-opening of borders, up to this point, have not become a reality.