China News Agency, Guangzhou, February 6th, title: Outbound group tours from mainland China restart, and the first batch of tourists departs from Guangzhou
China News Agency reporter Cheng Jingwei
Nearly 50 tourists took an Emirates flight at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 0:15 on February 6 and took off for the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and other countries.
Tour guide Wu Guoliang was already waiting for tourists at Gate 48 of Terminal T2 of the airport at 20:30 on the 5th.
"Get ready!" As one of the leaders of the first batch of outbound travel teams, his excitement was beyond words.
A tour group departs from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to travel abroad Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau
A few days ago, the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China announced that starting from February 6, the 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 20 countries.
The reporter learned from the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism that on February 6, there were 6 outbound tour groups in Guangzhou with nearly 160 tourists. This is the first batch of outbound tour groups in the Mainland.
Among them, Guangzhou Guangzhi International Travel Agency organized the first outbound tour group, with a total of nearly 50 tourists, who participated in the 6-day UAE and 10-day group tours in Egypt. Retirees accounted for about 80% of the tourists, and the oldest was 80 years old.
Tourist Ms. Li said that when she learned that outbound group tours were resumed and the UAE was one of the first 20 pilot countries to open up, she immediately asked her family and friends to sign up.
According to the person in charge of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, at present, in terms of destinations, combined with the resumption of airline flights, the Guangzhou outbound tourism market has launched Southeast Asian routes such as Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as routes from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and New Zealand. tourism product.
Zhao Wenzhi, president of Guangzhou Travel, said that the travel agency has never stopped communicating with overseas consulates, tourism bureaus, hotels, airlines and other reception links, and has been preparing for the restart of outbound tourism business and market recovery.
Currently, the travel agency has more than 800 outbound travel products on the shelves.
At 4 o'clock on February 6, Spring Airlines' Guangzhou-Bangkok route also ushered in the first tourist group after the pilot resumed outbound group tours.
Cai Wei, vice president of Spring Group, said that the airline will gradually resume the round-trip routes between Guangzhou and Phuket between China and Thailand, providing more travel options for tourists from the Pearl River Delta region to fly to Thailand.
"I'm very happy to restart the long-awaited Chinese outbound group business." Li Xun, general manager of Emirates China, said that the airline will continue to promote the steady restart of passenger services in the Chinese mainland market, and look forward to an early and rapid recovery of the tourism industry to pre-epidemic levels level.
According to industry analysts, reception links such as international flights, tourist vehicles, restaurants, scenic spots reception scale, tour guide services, and overseas service providers are still in the stage of reconstruction and continuous increase in supply. The recovery of the market still needs a process.
It is expected that starting from March this year, both the number of outbound group tour products and the number of applicants will show a gratifying growth trend.
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