China, Singapore pursuing mutual 30-day tourist visa-free policy
Mandai Bird Paradise in Singapore
China and Singapore announced a 30-day visa-free policy on Thursday that is likely to see a boom in tourism between the two countries.
"Both countries will work out the implementation details of the mutual 30-day visa exemption arrangement and implement it in early 2024," the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also Singapore's finance minister, made the announcement during the 19th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation in Tianjin on Thursday.
According to Shanghai-based online travel operator Trip.com, the news sparked a considerable interest in travel to the island state among Chinese travelers.
Singapore's Changi Airport
Trip.com reported a 90 percent rise in China-Singapore flight ticket searches and a 50 percent increase in hotel searches by Thursday afternoon.
The travel operator said Singapore is a popular outbound destination for Chinese tourists and a major inbound market for China.
Singapore received 1 million visits by Chinese tourists from January to September, about 35 percent of that in the same period of 2019.
China has waived visas for Singaporean passport holders for 15-day trips since July.
Tongcheng Travel, another online travel provider, reported that Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong residents were most interested in Singapore as of 2pm, up 18 percent from the day before.
Cheng Chaogong, a tourism researcher with the travel operator, expects Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, now all offering visa-free travel for Chinese travelers, to form a golden outbound travel route in 2024.
