BEIJING: Lisa Cao, a 20-something office worker in Beijing, enjoyed a special Spring Festival holiday this year. She traveled to Laos during the weeklong break, which ran from January 21 to 27, after spending the festival, formally known as Chinese New Year, in China for the past two years. “After outbound travel resumed earlier this year, I was so excited that I decided to go abroad as soon as I could,” Cao told Beijing Review.
This is the first Spring Festival holiday since China optimized its COVID-19 response policies last December and removed all quarantine requirements for inbound passengers on January 8. Group travel from China to designated countries also resumed on February 6.
As an avid traveler, Cao visited domestic and overseas destinations during holidays before the pandemic. She returned to China from a trip to Poland in early 2020, when COVID-19 started spreading, and did not travel overseas again until her visit to Laos this year. She spent about 10,000 yuan ($1,482) on this trip, and felt it was worthwhile. She plans to travel to more countries this year.
Like Cao, many people traveled overseas as soon as COVID-related travel restrictions were lifted. According to travel platform Ctrip.com, overseas bookings jumped 640 percent year on year during the Spring Festival holiday. Destinations in Southeast Asia including Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were the most popular among Chinese tourists.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing review news exchange item
