United States has relaxed visa requirements for travelers heading from China and outbound travel from the mainland has become the major source of growth for airlines in the region.
It is expected that more international traffic for Chinese carriers will increase by over 15 % this year on the outbound tourism boom. Additionally, the South Korea, Japan and UK are considering simplifying the application process of visa. They expect the same will be followed by most of the countries in the coming future.
Notably, 1.8 million travelers from China have given S$21.1 billion to the economy of US last year. And, a pact was also made between the US and China to expand the duration of visa from one to ten years.
The senior analyst with the Centre for Aviation, Will Horton said that the airlines business will be grown at a rapid pace. He added that Thailand-Japan experienced major growth after Japan facilitated visit for Thais.
He added that streamlining the tourist visas requirements for citizens of China entering the USA is good news, which helps to increase the number of tourists visiting the country and also increase the flight's demand.
The commercial director for Hong Kong and Macau at Texas-headquartered American Airlines, Victor Lee stated that the simplified US visa requirements will not only result in increase Chinese travelers to the US but also to Latin America because US visitor visa allows entry to various nations including Panama and Mexico.
He added that streamlined visa requirements will bring more visitors to the country. Japan said that it would publicize the information of its new visa regime for Chinese travelers in the spring.
Horton stated that Japan has set high tourism targets- 20 million by the end of 2020 and 30m by 2030 year. He added that the only way to meet the target is with visa liberalization.
