A few days ago, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that starting from February 6, national travel agencies and online travel companies will resume the pilot operation of outbound group travel and "air ticket + hotel" business for Chinese citizens to relevant countries.

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily noticed that after the news was released, the search for outbound and group tours on major travel platforms soared.

　　The number of consultations on outbound group tours soared

　　The Ministry of Culture and Tourism allows travel agencies to open outbound group tours for Chinese citizens to 20 countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba and Argentina.

　　A reporter from the Beiqing Daily searched and found that CYTS Caesar International Travel Group has launched products related to outbound tours in Russia, Hungary, Iceland and other places, including: a group tour product launched in Hungary on the 8th, 4-star and special hotel accommodation throughout the journey, and Beijing departure matching Air China direct flights to and from, the earliest group products are on February 9th; Russia Moscow + Murmansk on the 9th to pursue the Aurora Holy Land tour with a group, 4-star and special polar hotels, direct flights to and from Hainan Airlines; travel in July 2023 The 22-day marine science research tour on a polar cruise for teenagers involves Iceland, Greenland, Jan Mayen, and Svalbard.

　　A staff member of a travel agency said: "It is expected that a large number of outbound travel products will be officially launched after the Spring Festival."

　　Jiang Wen, CEO of Ctrip Group Tours, said that once the notice on the opening of outbound and group tours was issued, the search volume of outbound and group tour products on the platform instantly increased by 5 times, driving the popularity of overseas destinations to increase by 330%. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia was the most searched.

From the perspective of offline stores, since December 27 last year, the number of consultations on outbound and group tours in stores has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.

After the notice is issued, the platform plans to quickly launch nearly a hundred outbound tour group products, including private tours, exquisite small tours, semi-self-guided tours, destination tours, and free travel packaged products.

　　Thailand is the most searched destination

　　According to the data released by Fliggy on the evening of January 20, as of now, the bookings for outbound travel related products for the Spring Festival in 33 countries and regions have more than doubled year-on-year, and the bookings for Thailand, Maldives, and New Zealand have increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.

In the past week, the number of international air ticket orders has increased by more than 3 times compared with last year.

　　After the news was released, a large number of tourists entered the same journey travel platform to search for outbound travel products, and the search volume for outbound travel products increased by more than 5 times in an instant.

Among them, Thailand is the most popular overseas destination country, and the search volume of related tourism products has increased by 430% in an instant.

In addition, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are also among the top five outbound travel destinations most concerned by domestic tourists.

With the adjustment of the outbound group travel business policy, the number of users asking for overseas visas continues to increase, and the users' willingness and confidence in outbound travel are recovering.

In the user's visa consultation, the popular destinations are concentrated in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and so on.

　　According to the analysis of Tongcheng Research Institute, the domestic outbound travel market will enter a recovery cycle, and the recovery pace of overseas destination markets will also vary. Chinese tourists will first consider destinations that are more open and friendly to domestic tourists.

In addition, overseas destinations in Southeast Asia and South Asia with warm climates are also the main choices for Chinese tourists to go to sea in winter.

　　The airline resumes flights and adds more overseas routes

　　A reporter from Beiqing Daily learned that at present, many airlines plan to resume or increase overseas routes.

　　Xiamen Airlines resumed the Xiamen-Ho Chi Minh City route from January 20, with one flight per day starting from February 14.

The Fuzhou-Sydney route will resume from January 27, and the flight schedule will be twice a week from February 4.

In addition, Xiamen Airlines will continue to promote the resumption of intercontinental routes.

For example, there are two flights per week from Xiamen-Amsterdam, four flights per week from Xiamen-Sydney, and three flights per week from Xiamen-Melbourne, which are convenient for international students and business travelers to travel to and from Europe and Australia; for regional flights, starting from January 8, Xiamen The airline has successively increased its flights from Xiamen-Taipei Songshan, Xiamen-Hong Kong, Xiamen-Macau, Hangzhou-Hong Kong, and Hangzhou-Macau to once a day, making it convenient for passengers to travel between the three places across the Taiwan Strait.

　　Hainan Airlines plans to resume the Beijing-Phuket route from February 24 and launch a new Guangzhou-Phuket route.

So far, Hainan Airlines has resumed and newly opened flights from Beijing to Brussels, Moscow, Belgrade, Berlin, Manchester, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Chongqing to Rome, Madrid, Shenzhen to Vancouver, Dalian to Tokyo, Seoul, Haikou to Hong Kong, Shenzhen to Tel Aviv , Shanghai to Tel Aviv, Beijing to Tel Aviv, Harbin to Khabarovsk, a total of 17 round-trip international and regional passenger routes.

　　From February 13th, Air France will resume the direct flight operation service of the Shanghai-Paris route.

This means that all Air France Shanghai flights will no longer need to stop in Seoul, South Korea.

Flight times to and from Shanghai will be shortened due to flight routing changes.

　　In addition, Emirates will significantly increase passenger flight services in the three major gateway cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The flight between Dubai and Beijing will resume from March 15.

The non-stop service will operate once a day and will be operated by a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

　　Beijing Youth Daily/Reporter Lin Lishuang Coordinator/Yu Meiying