China Awaits: No Visa Required to Witness the Marvel of Fubao – Get Ready for a Travel Boom as Trips to China Set to Double

There are comments that as the Chinese government includes Korea as a visa-free country, the demand for Korean citizens to go to China could increase significantly. In particular, expectations are growing, as the cost of issuing a visa, which is in the range won 60,000, disappears, the migration of travelers of the Korean generation MZ, who led the journey to Japan, to China will accelerate.

According to the travel and aviation industry on the 3rd, Chinese diplomatic authorities announced on the 1st that they would implement a visa-free policy for nine countries (Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein) by include Korea from the 8th. This is the first time China has included Korea in its visa-free list.

The travel industry expects this visa-free measure to have a megaton impact on Chinese tourism demand, which has been shrinking for a while after COVID-19. In particular, it is believed that the number of visitors from the MZ generation, who were relatively indifferent to traveling to China, is likely to increase rapidly.

For the MZ generation, who mostly travel solo, the Chinese visa issuance process is sure to be cumbersome. Even if it is a one-time visa (single entry), not only does it cost a lot of issuance, it won about 60,000, but the issuance period also takes more than a week. Now that this obstacle is gone, the expectation is that the MZ generation will put China on their list of travel destinations.

Travel agencies already quickly started preparing themed products last weekend, right after the visa-free policy was announced.

Major Hana Tours and Very Good Travels prepare independent travel products with various themes tailored to MZ tastes, including Sichuan Fubao tours, Shanghai luxury tours, and Disneyland visits.

An official from Good Good Travel said, “Due to visa restrictions in the past, there were many cases where people inquired about going to China but gave up,” and added, “Looking at the number of inquiries about going to China is already increasing, we expect the rate of visits to increase at least twofold after November.”

Individual travel products focusing on new generation hot spots such as Beijing and Chengdu are also expected to appear.

An official from Hana Tour said, “In the past, thanks to the visa-free policy for Mongolia, the demand for visits by people in their 20s and 30s has increased rapidly,” adding, “In in addition to existing regions such as Zhangjiajie and Baekdu Mountain, we will actively introduce MZ and family-oriented themed products. “

Expectations in the aviation industry are also growing. An aviation industry official said, “Due to China’s visa exemption measure, exchanges between Korea and China will become more active, and demand for flights in the tourism and business sectors is expected to increase,” adding, “It is expected have a positive impact on the recovery of slow Chinese routes.” “He said.

According to the Korea Aviation Association, international passengers in the first half of last year improved by 93.9% compared to the first half of 2019 before the pandemic. However, for Chinese routes, the rate is only 71.7% compared to the first half of 2019.

Travel reporter Shin Ik-soo and Reporter Lee Jong-hwa