No "double standard" in Southeast Asia: Officials meet to investigate themselves, only hope that Chinese tourists come early to more

Read Time:8 Minute, 14 Second

Since January 8, China has optimized its immigration control measures and some countries have then implemented entry restrictions for Chinese travelers, but in Southeast Asia it is a different scene altogether.

Today Southeast Asian countries are thinking about how to stand out among their competitors and welcome back Chinese tourists as soon as possible.

For example, on the 9th, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin and other senior officials made a high-profile personal visit to the airport to welcome the first returning Chinese tourists.

Vietnam resumed inbound tourism earlier than any other Southeast Asian country in March 2022, after a controversial effort to revive the epidemic, yet the country found in late 2022 statistics that it received 3.66 million international tourists for the year, only 70 percent of its target, lagging behind other popular Southeast Asian tourist destinations in terms of numbers.

With the first wave of the epidemic’s peak having passed and economic activity and the service sector recovering rapidly, the number of Chinese tourists is likely to recover even faster, according to several Chinese studies. “As a result, the contribution of Chinese tourists to GDP growth in 2023 could exceed current expectations.” Overseas tourism operators believe.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Triet recently specifically asked Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and other departments to reform the country’s cumbersome visa system to facilitate the entry of tourists and provide conditions for a breakthrough in Vietnam’s tourism industry in 2023. Compared with the more relaxed visa system of other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam’s visa system is more strict and conservative.

Zhou Shixin, an associate researcher at the Asia-Pacific Research Center of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, told China Business News that Southeast Asian countries welcome the return of Chinese tourists because tourism carries a lot of weight in the overall economy for Southeast Asian countries, and the return of Chinese tourists will also stimulate the recovery and development of related service industries, “such a virtuous cycle can be seen during the Spring Festival at the earliest “.

Vietnam tries every possible way to attract tourists

At present, many Southeast Asian countries give Chinese tourists visa facilitation measures, such as the implementation of visa-free, visa-on-arrival or electronic visa, tourists do not need to bother more on the issue of entry and exit after booking the trip.

However, Vietnam, which is also a popular destination, has a rather conservative visa system. For most ordinary Chinese tourists, they need to apply for the traditional paper visa before the trip, although Vietnam has an electronic visa system, but the current ordinary electronic passport (E passport) can not apply for the time being.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Triet said recently that the growth of Vietnam’s tourism industry in 2022 is hampered by the lack of convenient visa policies, and he has asked the relevant departments to review, revise and supplement visa-related policies, and complete the submission of draft guidelines to attract international travelers by the end of January.

Vietnam currently has visa waivers for citizens of only 25 countries, in contrast to Thailand’s visa waivers for more than 60 countries and up to 160 countries that can benefit from Malaysia’s visa waivers.

Travel agencies in Vietnam often complain that many international tours have had to cancel their Vietnam trips at the last minute because they did not obtain visas in time. Vietnam’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung also admitted that many countries have attracted a large number of tourists through the visa waiver policy and Vietnam is not competitive enough in this regard.

At the same time, Vietnam’s travel agencies also want to extend the visa-free stay to 30 days from the current usual 15 days and allow multiple entries during the period, which could prompt Vietnam to become a long-distance travel and air transit point for international tourists.

The cumbersome visa system has reduced the competitiveness of Vietnam’s tourism industry against the backdrop of Southeast Asian countries competing for tourism market share. According to the World Tourism Organization and the World Tourism Council (WTTC), the implementation of a facilitated visa system could increase international tourist arrivals by 5 to 25 percent annually.

In 2023, Vietnam’s tourism industry aims to receive 110 million tourists, including 8 million international tourists and 102 million domestic tourists. However, the 8 million international visitors is only half of the pre-epidemic number, and Vietnam does not expect tourism to return to its pre-epidemic status until 2025.

And with the reopening of Chinese tourists, it will not be difficult for Vietnam’s tourism industry to reach these goals. In this regard, on January 9, the General Department of Tourism and Vietnam Tourism Association jointly held a conference on “Measures to attract Chinese tourists to Vietnam”.

Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, stressed that the tourism sector needs to develop measures to attract back Chinese tourists as soon as possible and to ensure the sustainable development of the Chinese inbound tourism market, it is necessary to fix the illegal acts in serving Chinese tourists and leave a good impact on them.

In the past, Chinese tourists often encountered border control officers asking for tips when entering Vietnam. Singaporean media also reported on January 9 that Singaporean citizens were also asked for tips by Vietnamese border guards when leaving the country in Hanoi.

In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs China Consular Service website has published a special reminder: Chinese citizens entering Vietnam (land and air ports) do not need to pay any fees if they have already completed their visa to Vietnam in China.

For Vietnam, China is one of the largest source markets for inbound tourism.In 2019, Vietnam received 5.8 million Chinese tourists, accounting for about one-third of the total number of foreign tourists in Vietnam. Between 2015 and 2019, Chinese tourists to Vietnam grew at an average annual rate of 34.4%.

In 2019, the year before the epidemic, tourism accounted for 9.2% of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) and received more than 18 million international tourists for the year. The Vietnamese government has been hoping to promote an early recovery in tourism to make up for the losses caused by the epidemic.

In 2021, Vietnam launched a number of pilot efforts one after another. In November of that year, the Vietnamese government launched a pilot program for inbound tourism on the outlying island of Phu Quoc, which was open to approved foreign tour groups. The Vietnamese government finally officially announced on March 15, 2022 that the border would be reopened to international tourists from that day onwards, fully resuming international tourism activities.

No “double standards” in Southeast Asia

Compared to Vietnam, Thailand is also trying hard to attract foreign tourists by cutting down on restrictive entry measures as much as possible.

After greeting the first group of Chinese tourists at the airport on the 9th, Anutin also made a surprise announcement that Thailand will no longer require incoming passengers to show proof of vaccination for the new crown, and that the new policy will take effect immediately.

Anutin said the reason for adjusting the policy was because showing proof of vaccination was inconvenient for travelers and because the panel of experts had said that immunization levels had been largely achieved globally.

Previously on the 5th, the Thai government said after holding an inter-departmental coordination meeting that it would require international travelers to show proof of vaccination and health insurance with coverage of at least $10,000 from 9:00 p.m. on the 9th.

After the decision on the 5th, Thailand’s travel industry association wrote to the government complaining that the new entry regulations threatened the recovery of Thailand’s tourism industry. The government authorities also took it in stride, with Thai Tourism and Sports Minister Pippa saying on the 9th that he intervened after receiving the letter, asking Anutin to adjust the vaccination requirements for international travelers.

Anutin added on the 9th that Thailand originally expected 5 million Chinese tourists to visit the country this year, and now the outlook is more optimistic, with estimates of 7 to 10 million. In 2019, before the epidemic, Chinese tourists visited Thailand in about 11 million trips.

It matters how the tourists’ experience is once they land. Anutin said on the 4th that Thailand will treat all arrivals from all countries equally and will not take special epidemic prevention measures for arrivals from one country.

The first financial reporter found that no Southeast Asian country has separate border control measures for Chinese tourists, and most of them can enter without providing a negative nucleic acid certificate.

Singapore’s Health Minister Wang Yikang said in a ministerial statement in Singapore’s parliament on the 9th on how to deal with the new crown epidemic situation that no new variant strains have been detected in Singapore’s local infected people entering from China so far this year. After assessing the situation, Singapore’s Ministry of Health has concluded that there is no need to tighten preventive measures at this time.

Singapore media also believe that an orderly resumption of outbound tourism by Chinese citizens could prompt Chinese tourists to return to Singapore for sightseeing and boost local spending, which is estimated to generate S$2 billion (about 10.2 billion yuan) in retail sales for the year.

“Cambodia welcomes Chinese tourists.” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also said recently that Cambodia is expected to receive 2 million Chinese tourists this year, which will drive Cambodia’s rapid economic recovery.

According to the China Tourism Research Institute, Chinese citizens made 155 million outbound trips in 2019, the year before the epidemic, making them the world’s largest source country for outbound tourism. With the optimization of the anti-epidemic policy, it will have a positive impact on both Chinese and global tourism development.