A cleaning staff member at Beijing West Railway Station disinfects the station on January 17, 2022. The Spring Festival travel rush kicks off on January 17, and will last until February 25. About 1.18 billion passenger trips are expected during China's largest annual travel rush this year. Photo: Li Hao/GT

China will start promotion of inbound tourism at an appropriate time after the global COVID-19 pandemic is under effective control, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced on Thursday.

On the premise that the pandemic is effectively contained, China will promote inbound tourism in an orderly manner, steadily develop outbound tourism, and continue to promote tourism exchanges, according to a guideline on the Chinese tourism market during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) released by the State Council.

Under the guideline, the country will promote inbound tourism at an appropriate time, and formulate technical guidelines on epidemic prevention and control for inbound tourism in a scientific way.

Efforts will be made to strengthen communication with countries on international shipping, vaccination, tourism group organization and medical insurance; strictly implement the "circuit breaker" system for international passenger flights, and strictly implement the real-name ticket reservation system for foreign tourists, according to the guideline.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the country will take effective measures to promote high-quality inbound tourism, train multilingual tour guides, and enrich and enhance the image of China's tourism.

The country has pledged to improve services to provide more convenience for foreign travelers in areas such as optimizing self-driving trips, customs clearance, financial payments, internet services and signs in various languages.

It will also accelerate the revision of the mutual exemption of group tourism visas between China and Russia, improve the tax refund process for tourists and expand the scale of duty-free stores.

China will also steadily develop outbound tourism and have outbound tourists play a positive role in spreading Chinese culture and displaying the nation's image.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), China's inbound and outbound tourism developed in a sound and orderly manner, with the total number of inbound and outbound tourists exceeding 300 million annually.

Global Times