As the Chinese New Year approaches, the outbound travel market has entered a booking frenzy, with bookings for Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand from China up 15 times year-on-year.
With China's opening-up measures, including visa exemptions, the Spring Festival holidays - running from February 10 to 17 - will see a wave of Chinese tourists traveling abroad, making China an important force in promoting the development of global tourism, experts said.
On Sunday, China and Thailand signed a mutual visa exemption agreement, which will take effect from March 1. This agreement now facilitates a golden tourism route between China and Southeast Asia, as three countries - Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand - have all signed mutual visa exemption agreements with China.
The bookings of Chinese tourists traveling to the three countries during the Spring Festival holidays are up more than 15 times compared with 2023 on Chinese travel platform Trip.com.
Bookings for Singapore and Thailand have increased by more than 13 times, while the number of bookings for Malaysia has increased by more than 22 times.
