In China’s Covid-hit tropical paradise, stranded tourists grapple with cancelled flights, rule changes
- More than 27,000 of 150,000 stranded visitors have gone back as of Sunday, Hainan provincial authorities say
- Flight uncertainties add to worries for trapped tourists, along with new pre-departure quarantine and multiple negative test requirements
However, frequent flight cancellations, and extra nucleic acid test and quarantine requirements are making exit difficult, even though authorities promised a gradual restoration of flight capacity for provincial capital Haikou and the top tourist city of Sanya.
The island province, often billed as “China’s Hawaii”, has recorded more than 8,880 coronavirus infections this month, including 1,163 reported on Monday, mostly in Sanya.
Emergency travel restrictions were imposed in Sanya and Haikou days after the first cases were reported in early August, with trains and flights cancelled, and public transport suspended as part of China’s dynamic zero-Covid policy, which seeks to curb transmission chains at the earliest. The measures left two-fifths of some 80,000 tourists in Sanya trapped in their hotels, according to the beach city’s deputy mayor.
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80,000 tourists trapped in ‘China’s Hawaii’ in latest Covid-19 outbreak
A total of 27,211 travellers were sent home from both cities via 140 flights by Sunday, Hainan health authorities said. More flights were planned for the next three days, Wang Liming, a provincial tourism official, said on Monday.
