GGRAsia – Guangdong eases restrictions for outbound trips

Guangdong eases restrictions for outbound trips

Aug 25, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Authorities in mainland China’s Guangdong province – neighbouring Macau – have eased travel-related restrictions for outbound travellers. The move comes as the number of places in the country labelled as either ‘mid’ or ‘high risk’ for Covid-19 infection continues to dwindle.

Guangdong’s Department of Culture and Tourism announced that travel agencies operating in the province – including online travel agencies – have been allowed to resume sales of “flight plus hotel stay” packages, and of tour packages, for travel to other Chinese provinces. The measure was enacted on August 24.

Travel agencies cannot however sell packages for destinations still in the list of mid- or high-risk places for Covid-19, according to the department’s announcement.

The operator of Zhuhai Airport, next to Macau, separately announced that from Wednesday (August 25), departing passengers were no longer required to present a nucleic acid test certificate with a ‘negative’ result for Covid-19 infection issued in the previous 48 hours. The easing measure, however, did not apply for people travelling either to Beijing or Xi’an.

That test certificate requirement by Zhuhai Airport had been in place since August 4. The airport’s operator noted in its latest announcement that travellers still needed to comply with Covid-19-related requirements of the place they were travelling to.

Zhuhai Airport currently only serves destinations within mainland China. It is one of the secondary airports in Guangdong province.

As of 1.00pm on Wednesday, an aggregate of 48 places in mainland China were classified by health authorities as either mid or high risk for Covid-19 infection. The list included locations in Shanghai and in the provinces of Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei and Yunnan.

Earlier this month, there had been more than 200 places featured in the list, according to information from the national health authorities.

Mainland China is currently the only place to have a largely quarantine-free travel arrangement with Macau. The arrangement covers places on the mainland classified as ‘low risk’ for Covid-19 infection.

Mainland China faced a fresh wave of Covid-19 infection cases starting late July. At the time, several local authorities advised people to avoid making non-essential cross-provincial trips.