Destinations known | Why mass travel in and out of China is still months off – from ‘crazy’ flight ticket prices and Covid fears to other countries’ restrictions and visa issues
- Despite mainland China finally dropping Covid-19 travel restrictions, many barriers still exist to any kind of normal tourist travel to and from the country
- One example of a seven-day trip from southwestern China to Bangkok more than quadrupling in price since 2018 shows how much flight tickets have increased
The borders have reopened and quarantine is a thing of the past, but…
Predictably, Lok Ma Chau and other crossing points between Hong Kong and mainland China came alive this week, as Covid-19 border restrictions were dropped; however, a return to a great wash of people travelling in and out of China remains some months off. For a variety of reasons.
For a start, anyone eager to enter mainland China for any purpose other than business, homecoming, family reunion or study will still have to wait. Beijing is not yet issuing tourist visas and has given no indication as to when that might change.
Even an unexpired 10-year tourist visa for China wouldn’t be valid until the government gave the green light to leisure tourism, Daria Westerfield, owner of American agency River Oaks Travel, explained to the Bloomberg newswire.
“We are still kind of in a hold pattern for the normal traveller to go see China.”
Even when that green light is given there will remain hurdles, one of which is likely to be the scarcity and cost of flights. It will take time for airlines to ramp back up to pre-pandemic scheduling.
