‘Zero Covid’ Ends, China Set For Homecoming Rush

China’s long-awaited border reopening – the final step in its Covid-zero dismantling – is set to inspire a homecoming rush for many of the diaspora, but a full recovery in travel could take even longer.

Starting Sunday, China will no longer require quarantines on arrivals as Chinese authorities withdraw policies that have been a major deterrent to travelers, combined with exorbitant airfares, while capacity is severely limited. I have not. Those wishing to enter the country are still required to have a negative 48-hour Covid test result, but border controls have been significantly relaxed just two weeks before the Lunar New Year holiday, making it an endemic disease. Beijing’s efforts to keep the virus out have come to an end around the world.

The immediate impact will be the return of many overseas Chinese who have not seen their families in years.

“I haven’t been home for nearly two years, so the announcement felt like a feverish dream,” said Connor Zhao, a 25-year-old consultant who lives in San Francisco. It will fly to Qingdao on the 19th, including a layover in Hong Kong, where more flights to the mainland are available.

“I’m so excited to meet my parents. It means a lot to me to spend Chinese New Year with them,” he said.

However, the influx of tourists heading to the country is unlikely to coincide with a surge in demand for international travel. billion dollars, it will take months, if not years, to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

After the surge in infections, many countries are enforcing testing requirements for travelers from China, and airlines are hesitant to make drastic changes to flight schedules any time soon.

“Chinese people’s willingness to travel has started to recover significantly,” said Cheng Xin, head of China leisure and transportation research at UBS Securities.

The reopening of China’s borders marks the end of Covid Zero, which has isolated the world’s second-largest economy for three years and weighed heavily on the economy. The measures were able to keep the virus at bay for much of the pandemic, as millions died elsewhere, but the emergence of a more infectious variant eradicated the coronavirus. They became increasingly irrelevant as it became almost impossible to do.

Last June, the government began rolling back quarantines arbitrarily extended by some local governments in China and extended to almost a month at some points during the pandemic. Testing and lockdown in the last months of 2022.

More than a year after early Covid-zero advocates such as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand resumed quarantine-free international travel, they are the last countries to lift border restrictions.

Much of the initial inbound flow is expected to come from Hong Kong, and given the limited number of direct flights from destinations around the world to mainland cities, many diaspora will travel via Hong Kong. will be With the daily quota of about 60,000 people allowed to travel north from the financial hub, including 50,000 through the land border separating the two locations, there is a rush to secure places. Officials have promised to increase capacity over time.

As for the resumption of visits to China by foreigners and business people, practices such as negative PCR tests and almost everyone wearing a mask could act as a deterrent in the short term. But for the first time since the virus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019, China has rejoined the rest of the world.