Good deals and low fares to China as visa restrictions lift
Published on
31 Jul 2023
Published by
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – Ride snowmobiles through a wintry forest landscape, view ice sculptures, soak in hot springs amid the mountains and get up close to majestic elks.
Such experiences on a trip to Finland or Norway would set you back at least $5,000.
But for about a third of the price, you can do the same in the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Liaoning as part of an eight-day “Winter Fantasy of Mount Changbai” tour by local travel agency EU Holidays. Packages start at $1,688.
This is one of the many novel China tours the agency rolled out in July, just as the country resumed 15-day visa-free entry for Singaporeans travelling to China from July 26. This was halted in March 2020, near the start of the pandemic.
China eased entry restrictions for international visitors in March 2023, but still required Singaporeans to apply for visas – a deterrent for leisure travellers.
In April and May, travellers faced long queues and long waits for appointment slots at the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre in Robinson Road.
A single-entry visa for Singaporeans costs $86, while travel agencies such as Hong Thai Travel charge $250 to assist with the process. This includes filling up a lengthy application form on behalf of customers, and securing slots at the application centre.
Previously mandatory, the visa is now needed only for Singaporeans travelling longer than 15 days.
The easing of visa requirements has sparked cheer among industry players, who observed strong demand for China bookings even while visas were required.
Chan Brothers Travel marketing communications executive Samantha Tan says the company had confirmed 150 tour groups to China in 2023 before the visa-free announcement. It is expecting to hit 70 per cent of pre-Covid-19 China bookings in 2019 by this year.
Meanwhile, EU Holidays co-founder Wong Yew Hoong says that China bookings in the first half of 2023 have already surpassed those from the whole of 2019.
He adds that destination talks for Chinese provinces, which the company holds at its Suntec City office monthly, are often at full capacity with 50 to 80 attendees.
This is on a par with European destinations such as Finland, and is a useful way to gauge market interest, he tells The Straits Times (ST) in Mandarin.
Demand is shifting from an older, Mandarin-speaking market to younger folks enticed by China’s soft power, travel agents observe.
Chinese films, television shows and artistes are part of popular culture. Technological advancements such as cashless payments and industrial robots are well documented. And Chinese eateries have permeated the Singapore heartland as people here became familiar with the cuisine.
Ms Stella Chow, senior advertising and marketing manager at Hong Thai Travel, says the agency had strong growth in the China sector in 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic hit.
“Chinese provinces have become more active at promoting their destinations. Well-travelled Singaporeans want to go beyond major cities Beijing and Shanghai and see new places,” she says, adding that the country is affordable, diverse and accessible.
Budget carrier Scoot resumed flights to cities Nanning and Shenyang in May, and will add south-eastern city Nanchang to its schedule in August. The airline now flies to 17 destinations in China.
Meanwhile, Jetstar’s inaugural service to Haikou took off in April.
Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, was popular before visa restrictions were lifted as it allows 30 days of visa-free travel to 59 countries, including Singapore.
Still, Ms Tan of Chan Brothers Travel is circumspect.
“The speed of recovery for China outbound tourism is subject to evolving market forces such as flight routes, frequencies and airfares. We will have to wait and see how airlines react to the increasing demand.”
Flights from Singapore to China increased by 54 per cent from the second to the third quarter of 2023 and will continue to trend upward, based on data forecasts from aviation analytics company Cirium.
Prices remain reasonable. Checks by ST show that non-stop, round-trip flights to cities such as Shanghai and port city Qingdao during peak autumn season in October cost between $500 and $610.
Still a good-value destination
Compared with other East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, China is good value.
Most tours to Japan from Chan Brothers and EU Holidays, ranging from a week to 10 days, cost upwards of $3,000.
Meanwhile, trips to China of the same duration range from $1,500 to $2,000.
This is around 10 to 30 per cent higher than pre-pandemic prices, an increase that both companies ascribe to higher tour standards such as better accommodation and smaller groups.
As China has not yet lifted visa restrictions for the bulk of international travellers, land costs such as transport and accommodation have not spiked the way they did in Japan when it relaxed border restrictions in 2022, says Mr Wong.
Retiree Trisa Law, 60, who paid $1,688 for an eight-day Shandong tour with EU Holidays in June that she went on with a friend, found it good value.
“The quality of our hotels was close to five-star. They were beautiful, very grand, with spacious, clean and comfortable rooms,” she says.
She also enjoyed the fresh seafood in Qingdao and cultural sites such as Mount Taishan and Qufu City, the birthplace of Chinese philosopher Confucius.
New experiences
China’s tourism industry, kept afloat by the domestic market while borders were shut, spawned new experiences that were popularised by social media platforms such as Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle-focused platform that is like a hybrid of Pinterest and Instagram.
Travel agencies here take inspiration from such platforms to update and curate new tour packages – just in time for the Natas Fair, which will run from Aug 11 to 13.
In Niubei Mountain, customers can stay in glamping tents, go stargazing and wake up to sunrise views overlooking western Sichuan’s mountain ranges, an optional add-on to Chan Brothers Travel’s eight-day Sichuan tour. The company plans to expand the experience into a tour of its own.
Glamping caught on among young and affluent Chinese during the pandemic and, according to Xiaohongshu, interest in it has grown by more than 600 per cent in 2022.
In Anji county near Hangzhou, one can take a cable car to the Star Astronomy Hotel to spend the night at an altitude of 1,168m. The experience is part of an EU Holidays tour that includes Shanghai and Jiangnan province.
The company’s China manager Bobo Liu says they gather ideas from social media, then work with travel agencies in China to evaluate and adapt the experiences for the Singapore market.
China’s diversity of landscapes, ethnic groups and cuisines means it has lots to offer repeat customers and adventurous travellers.
Inner Mongolia’s sprawling grasslands beckon in summer and Heilongjiang province is perhaps best known for the Harbin ice and snow festival, with its impressive ice sculptures.
Xinjiang and Tibet, in the country’s west, are alluring for their unique cultures, and perhaps how they do not feel like China at all.
As for Ms Law, she has booked another trip to Zhangjiajie in September, a city in Hunan province known for the Wulingyuan Scenic Area which is said to have inspired the backdrop of Hollywood film Avatar (2009).
She is also keen to explore other destinations such as Guangxi in the country’s south, known for its dramatic limestone karst landscapes.
Her advice to travellers? Come with an open mind and calibrate expectations.
She says: “China has made quantum improvements in terms of infrastructure and keeping its cities clean and beautiful. Given time, there will be more progress.”
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Reproduced with permission.
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