China has declared a temporary exemption from visa requirements for citizens from six countries, including Malaysia and five European nations.
According to a Friday announcement, the spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, Mao Ning, said the exemption period is set to last from December 1st to November 30th, 2024.
In a statement to AGB, China’s online travel agency Trip.com confirmed that the policy has already brought some momentum to the tourism markets. In the first ten months of 2023, Trip.com has already seen four-digit growth in visitor numbers compared with the same period in 2022. This equates to more than 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
‘Data further show that Malaysia and Germany are among the top 10 sources of inbound tourism over the same period. At the time of writing, page views on flights from Malaysia to China jumped by 48.69 percent on November 24, compared to the same day a week ago,’ notes the group.
