China opens its doors and tourists flock in and out

China may still have a whole lot of unresolved pandemic issues, but tourists are already flocking back in the lead-up to the Lunar New Year.

Trip.com Group, a global travel service provider, has seen demand for travel to mainland Chinese surge after the decision last month to officially abolish all quarantine restrictions for in-bound visitors from January 8.

Since the announcement on 26 December 2022, Trip.com Group said it has has seen a huge increase in searches and the volume of travel bookings.

On Trip.com's Chinese language travel service platform Ctrip search interest for outbound flights from mainland China increased by 83% compared to the two-week period prior, with outbound flight bookings increasing by 59% over the same period from December 26 to January 5.

Bookings show the most popular cross-border destinations for Chinese tourists include: Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, the United States, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Indonesia.

The Lunar New Year runs from January 21-27.

The most popular domestic destinations for the holiday are Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Haikou.

Trip.com also operates Ctrip, Skyscanner, and Qunar.

Find out more: group.trip.com.