What’s new: Travel stocks ticked up and online searches for air and train tickets surged, after Beijing announced it was lifting testing requirements for cross-regional travel as part of a 10-point plan to ease its stringent Covid-19 response.
The new plan — published Wednesday by China’s cabinet— stipulates that people traveling between regions will no longer have their test results and digital health codes checked, even upon arrival. Other measures also include removing restrictions on over-the-counter fever, cough, antiviral and cold medicines, and ending mass nucleic acid testing.
On the day of the announcement, Guilin Tourism Corp. Ltd.’s shares closed at 9.21 yuan ($1.32), after surging by the daily limit of 10%, and extended their gains to end the week at 9.33 yuan. The stock prices of Lijiang Yulong Tourism Co. Ltd., UTour Group Co. Ltd. and Huangshan Tourism Development Co. Ltd. all saw an increase of over 2% on Wednesday.
Searches for air and train tickets on China’s top online travel platform Qunar also rocketed up sevenfold and fivefold, respectively, within hours of the announcement. Searches for airline tickets leading into the Lunar New Year holiday returned to pre-pandemic levels, Caixin has learned.
Allowing people to freely buy antiviral drugs will help ease public fears over the virus and boost consumer demand for travel, said Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher at Chinese travel agency Tongcheng’s research institute.
But Zhou Mingqi, founder of consultancy Jing Jian, sees the current wave of cases peaking in January, and predicts many people may cancel travel plans due to a high risk of being infected. China’s travel market is likely to recover in the second half of next year, said Zhou.
What’s the background: The 10-point plan is Beijing’s second stage of easing its anti-coronavirus measures following a Nov. 11 policy overhaul that came after increasing public calls for an end to the rigid “one-size-fits-all” implementation of its “zero-Covid” policy.
Among the changes announced on Nov. 11 was the termination of a “circuit breaker” mechanism, under which temporary flight bans were issued to carriers if a certain number of inbound passengers tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
