China's international travel recovery 'unforecastable'
Massive numbers of infections and unaccounted fatalities following China's loosening of "zero-COVID" restrictions mean that any recovery in international travel to and from the country is likely to be gradual. China's planned ending of travel restrictions lifted financial markets in the region Tuesday with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite Index rising more than 1% in midday trading. Chinese online travel platforms, including Trip.com and Qunar, reported a sharp surge in airfare searches with Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea among the popular destinations. China said Monday that inbound visitors will no longer be subject to hotel quarantine and on-arrival PCR testing requirements. The move is part of the government's sudden shift to a strategy of living with the virus, as other countries have been doing, reasoning that less-lethal omicron variants are in circulation. Health authorities have stopped recording all daily cases since Sunday, even as Chinese social media circulated video of a long line of corpses awaiting cremation at a mortuary. Highlighting the difficulties facing the travel industry, Japan on Tuesday introduced new measures on travelers from China, such as requiring them to undergo COVID testing on arrival. The Japanese government will not allow airlines to increase the number of flights to and from China. A spokesperson for All Nippon Airways told Nikkei Asia that the company is "assessing the situation," and will "carefully monitor the developments" regarding restrictions on the number of flights between Japan and China. Japan Airlines declined to comment on the matter. "The inbound market has been completely shut and as we have seen in other countries, it will take time for inbound demand to recover," said independent analyst Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation. China could see some 300,000 COVID-related deaths by April 1, according to an estimate by Washington-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, with the figure rising to a million by the end of 2023.<br/>
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China's international travel recovery 'unforecastable'
Massive numbers of infections and unaccounted fatalities following China's loosening of "zero-COVID" restrictions mean that any recovery in international travel to and from the country is likely to be gradual. China's planned ending of travel restrictions lifted financial markets in the region Tuesday with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite Index rising more than 1% in midday trading. Chinese online travel platforms, including Trip.com and Qunar, reported a sharp surge in airfare searches with Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea among the popular destinations. China said Monday that inbound visitors will no longer be subject to hotel quarantine and on-arrival PCR testing requirements. The move is part of the government's sudden shift to a strategy of living with the virus, as other countries have been doing, reasoning that less-lethal omicron variants are in circulation. Health authorities have stopped recording all daily cases since Sunday, even as Chinese social media circulated video of a long line of corpses awaiting cremation at a mortuary. Highlighting the difficulties facing the travel industry, Japan on Tuesday introduced new measures on travelers from China, such as requiring them to undergo COVID testing on arrival. The Japanese government will not allow airlines to increase the number of flights to and from China. A spokesperson for All Nippon Airways told Nikkei Asia that the company is "assessing the situation," and will "carefully monitor the developments" regarding restrictions on the number of flights between Japan and China. Japan Airlines declined to comment on the matter. "The inbound market has been completely shut and as we have seen in other countries, it will take time for inbound demand to recover," said independent analyst Brendan Sobie of Sobie Aviation. China could see some 300,000 COVID-related deaths by April 1, according to an estimate by Washington-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, with the figure rising to a million by the end of 2023.<br/>
