Chinese passengers arrive at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Samut Prakan, Thailand, Jan. 9, 2022. Thailand on Monday welcomed the arrival of thousands of Chinese tourists in its capital of Bangkok, the first group following China's optimization of COVID-19 strategy which took effect on Jan. 8. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese travel agencies are preparing for the resumption of outbound group tour services starting from Monday, with the first batch of tourists set out for countries including Thailand and Laos. 

Industry insiders expect a significant increase in outbound tours and travelers starting from March, and the influx of Chinese tourists is expected to inject new momentum into the global economic recovery, especially in countries in Southeast Asia.

"On Monday, a group of around 40 tourists will travel to Bangkok in Thailand, which will depart from Guangzhou at early morning and arrive at 8:05 am," China Spring Tour
told the Global Times.

This would be the firm's first outbound tour group in 2023. The company said that the six-day, five-night tour to Phuket was sold out on the day it was released, thanks to its comparatively low cost, convenient visa services and travel time.

The company will launch two other group tours to Bangkok in Thailand and Vientiane in Laos on Monday. As of Friday, it had sold nearly 1,000 outbound travel products, including group tours, self-guided trips, visa services and ticket and hotel bookings.

China Spring Tour's experience reflects the Chinese travelers' eagerness to restart outbound travel, after the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on January 20 that China would roll out a pilot program to resume outbound group travel services to 20 countries starting from Monday.

South China's Hainan-based CAISSA Tourism Group said on its official WeChat account recently that its outbound travel business has fully restarted, with dozens of outbound travel products to be released, while the first tour group to Europe in 2023 will depart on Tuesday.

"As CAISSA Tourism's close cooperation partners, embassies from countries, including Switzerland, Singapore and Thailand, expressed their expectations for the arrival of Chinese tourists. They expressed willingness to work with CAISSA Tourism to boost the recovery and prosperity of China's outbound tourism market," the company said.

Starting on Monday, cross-border travel between the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SAR) will also fully resume, giving another boost to the rebound of outbound tourism.

Chinese online travel platform Trip.com told the Global Times on Saturday that the company has launched nearly 700 outbound group tour products, covering 15 destination countries and regions. 

The first group tour will leave for Thailand on Tuesday, with tourists flying from Nanning in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Huidong in Guangdong Province and the Hong Kong SAR to gather in Bangkok.

"We predict there will be an increase in the number of outbound group tours as well as tourists starting from March, but it requires time for the recovery of the market as many Chinese restaurants overseas shut down due to the pandemic and many guides changed jobs," Zhang Yan, outbound tour services director of Trip.com, told the Global Times.

Outbound travel is expected to warm up this spring, with the return of industry employees, publicity about overseas travel and an increase in international flights at the end of March, although a full recovery will take time, added Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of China Spring Tour. 

The tourism recovery in Asia and the Pacific alongside China's reopening is deemed as an important catalyst for the revival of global tourism and economic prospects in 2023.

The removal of COVID-19-related travel restrictions in China is a significant and much-welcomed step for the recovery of the tourism sector in Asia and the Pacific and worldwide, said Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization, according to media reports.

China's resumption of outbound group tours could bring more than $200 billion back to international tourism, the Financial Times reported in January. In 2019, before the pandemic, 155 million Chinese traveled abroad and spent more than $133.8 billion, according to data released by the China Tourism Academy.

The effect of stronger tourism activity due to the resumption of China's outbound group tour could boost Malaysia's GDP by at least 1 percentage point, UOB Global Economics & Market Research said on Friday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.