On January 2, Thai Prime Minister Saita Tawixin stated that China and Thailand will permanently grant each other's visas for each other's citizens starting in March.

Earlier, Thailand announced a 5-month visa-free policy for Chinese tourists on September 13. This policy covers the “Eleventh Golden Week” and the 2024 Spring Festival holiday. Big data from Where to Go shows that after the policy was released, the number of Thai airline ticket searches on the platform increased by more than 70% month-on-month compared to the same period last week, and the number of Thai hotel searches doubled month-on-month.

On December 27, the National Tourism Administration of Thailand said that the number of Chinese visitors to Thailand is expected to be around 3.4 million in 2023. Although this is an increase from 2022, the Tourism Administration of Thailand has predicted that 5.3 million to 7 million Chinese tourists will visit Thailand throughout the year. The current figure is far below the initial target.

In an interview with the media, Thapani Giatiphevun, director of the National Tourism Administration of Thailand, mentioned that the 2024 plan is to attract 35 million visitors from around the world, of which the target for Chinese tourists is set at 8 million.

“New Matai” targets Chinese tourists

Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are popular outbound travel destinations for Chinese tourists. Since this year, flights to Southeast Asia have resumed rapidly, which has led to a drop in ticket prices to around 1,000 yuan, further increasing the cost effectiveness of travel in these three countries.

According to media reports, Singapore and China held a New Zealand-China Joint Committee for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) meeting in Tianjin on December 7. Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Huang Xuncai revealed at the meeting that on the basis of the continuous increase in flights between Singapore and China, the two sides will adopt a 30-day mutual visa exemption arrangement to strengthen personnel exchanges between the two countries.

Compared to previous visa arrangements, this news represents a major upgrade in the convenience of exchanges between the two countries. Earlier, starting July 23 this year, the Chinese government resumed a 15-day visa-free policy for Singaporean citizens with ordinary passports.

Malaysia also implemented visa-free measures for Chinese citizens to be visa-free for 30 days starting December 1. After the visa-free policy was introduced, some travel agencies said that the number of in-store inquiries increased by 50%, and the number of reservations increased by 20%.

The tourism industry is the third-largest economic pillar in Malaysia, after the electronics manufacturing industry and the oil and gas industry. Benefiting from a strong recovery in tourism, Malaysia's GDP growth rate is expected to exceed 4% this year.

Malaysia's Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Zhang Qingxin said that China is still Malaysia's biggest source of tourists this year. From January to September of this year, Malaysia received 1.02 million visitors from China, an increase of 42.2% over the same period in 2019.

China tests one-sided visa-free access to six countries including France and Germany

On November 24, according to the Consular Express official's WeChat account, in order to further promote exchanges between Chinese and foreign personnel, high-quality service development, and a high level of openness to the outside world, the Chinese side decided to expand the scope of unilaterally visa-free countries on a trial basis and test a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia.

From December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024, ordinary passport holders from the above countries will be able to enter China without a visa for no more than 15 days to do business, travel, visit family and friends, and transit. People from these countries who do not meet the visa exemption requirements are still required to obtain a visa to come to China before entering the country.

On January 2, CCTV news reported that according to statistics from the State Administration of Immigration, since China implemented a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from 6 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia on December 31, 2023, a total of 214,000 visitors to China from these six countries, up 28.5% from November. Among them, the total number of visa-free visitors with ordinary passports was 118,000, accounting for 55.1% of the total number of people entering the six countries during the same period. Judging from the origin of immigration, of those exempted from entry with ordinary passports The total number of visitors to China for sightseeing, leisure and business activities was 91,000, accounting for 77.3%.

Furthermore, starting January 1, the Chinese Embassy and Consulate in the US will begin exempting visa application materials submitted by US travelers to China, such as round-trip air tickets, hotel orders, itineraries, or invitations.