Besides Vietnam, China allows group tours to 39 countries from March 15.

According to the Global Times , China will resume group tours for Chinese citizens to 40 other countries, including Vietnam, Nepal, Iran, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Brazil starting from March 15. This is the second batch of destinations in China's pilot program for outbound group tours, after the country resumed the first batch of cross-border group tours to 20 countries on February 6.

Ngoài Việt Nam, Trung Quốc cho phép mở tour đoàn đến 39 nước từ 15.3 - Ảnh 1. — Chinese tourists arrive at Cam Ranh airport on charter tours during Tet this year

The move to expand the number of destinations comes as China’s outbound tourism industry has been on a rapid recovery path over the past month and as many countries are pinning their hopes on the return of Chinese tourists to support their post-Covid-19 economies. Observers point out that the return of more Chinese tourists is expected to revive the global tourism industry.

Travel agents and online travel companies in China can launch products, promotions and other preparations to bring group tourists to 40 countries on the second pilot list from March 10.

The 40 countries in the second batch include Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and Latin America, and will bring the total number of countries and regions in China's pilot program to resume group tours to 60 destinations globally.

Searches for international airfares surged 185% in just one hour on March 10, the day China announced its decision to resume the second wave of group tours, according to data from Alibaba-owned travel platform Fliggy. Among the 40 countries, flights to Vietnam are quite busy and affordable, while ticket prices to European countries remain relatively high, data from Trip.com cited by the Global Times .

So far, countries and territories in Asia - among the most popular travel destinations for Chinese visitors - accounted for more than 80% of the growth in outbound flights from February 27 to March 5, according to data from VariFlight.

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