China offers visa-free arrival to Hainan

China has offered visa-free arrival to 59 nationals to visit Hainan with effect from 1 May 2018. This move is aimed to assist reforms and open up the nation’s south most Island province. The visa-free arrival scheme was announced by the State Immigration Administration.

More details regarding the visa-free arrival scheme appeared after the reports in earlier April in wire news. According to the fresh policy, individual and group tourists from 59 nations will be offered 30 days stay in Hainan, as quoted by the TTR Weekly.

Asian citizens that are on the list include those from Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, The Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and Brunei. The overseas nationals who have been offered the Visa-Free Arrival will be permitted to stay for maximum 30 days.

Qu Yunhai Vice-Head of Administration of Hainan said that the aim of the government is to attract increased numbers of overseas tourists. It also intends to expand the tourism sector and cater to the needs of the overseas nationals, added Yunhai.

China has offered visa-free arrival to Hainan as a part of its initiatives to develop the province into a port for free trade with Chinese features. In 2017, overseas travelers to Hainan crossed 1.1 million. This was an increase of 50% when compared with the previous year.

Hainan received almost 320, 000 travelers in 2017 from the 26 nations that had visa waiver for group travel bookings. This was 3.5 times more than the figures for 2016. More than 90% of the tourists were from Russia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia. This was revealed by the Travel Agencies Association in Haiku, the capital of Hainan province.

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