China Group Travel Restrictions Continue to Stunt Full Recovery
Photo Credit: An Aisan woman seen a bridge. Image by OyeHaHa from Pixabay / OyeHaHa from Pixabay
Skift Take
While China's borders are open, group tours are limited. And with reduced flights and visa-processing constraints, global travel will continue to miss the spend and impact of the Chinese traveler.
China's travel borders are open, yet its group tours segment remains limited to less than half of the countries available to Chinese travelers before the pandemic.
That's according to Sienna Parulis-Cook, director of marketing and communications for Dragon Trail International, a marketing solutions company based in China. She explained that Chinese groups can travel only to countries with an Approved Destination Status (ADS) agreement with China, as approved by the Chinese government.
In January 2019, some 130 countries and territories had these ADS agreements. During the pandemic, Chinese travel agencies were banned from selling outbound group or package travel. In February 2023, travel agencies were again permitted to sell group and package travel, but only to a pilot list of 20 countries. An additional 40 countries were added in March.
Popular European destinations, like Spain, France, and Portugal, are included. However, the U.S. is miss
