China News Service, Sanya, October 23. Title: Visa-free entry into Qiong is convenient, and foreign tourists’ Sanya tours are becoming more diversified.
China News Service reporter Zhang Qianyi
Cenek Dufek, a passenger from the Czech Republic, arrived at Sanya Phoenix International Airport on the afternoon of the 23rd. It is his first time to come to Hainan and he plans to spend a nine-day holiday here. "Visa-free entry and customs clearance are very convenient."
As the port with the highest proportion of foreign tourists in Hainan, Phoenix International Airport has received 837,000 inbound and outbound foreign passengers since December 18 last year, of which visa-free entry foreign passengers accounted for 97.6% of the total inbound foreign passengers. Visa exemption has become the preferred way for foreigners to come to Qiong.
Behind the growth in passenger flow is the increasingly dense air channel. Zhou Jianan, deputy captain of the first duty team at the Phoenix Border Inspection Station of the Haikou Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station, said that Sanya has opened 38 international passenger routes, including the country's first seventh-freedom rights passenger route "Sanya-Prague" and the fifth-freedom rights route, covering core tourist source areas such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Russian-speaking areas; inbound foreigners mainly come from Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, etc.
Routes are encrypted and the gameplay is changing. "In the past, most tourists entered and exited from Hainan; now when you open your passport, you will see that many foreigners have entry approval stamps from other ports in China such as Suifenhe, Pudong, and Daxing." Zhou Jianan noticed that more and more foreign tourists first fly to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi'an and other places, and then go south along the high-speed rail and land routes, listing Sanya as the last stop of their "trip to China".
Another more flexible way of traveling has also quietly emerged: entering Sanya, traveling across the country, returning to Sanya, and departing from Qiong. Guo Hongyuan, a tour guide who is engaged in receiving tourists from the Russian-speaking area in Sanya, has a direct experience: There are nearly ten direct charter flights to Sanya from many Russian cities every week, with multiple flight options and affordable fares. In addition, rich coastal resort resources, mature traditional Chinese medicine health care services, and complete foreign-related reception facilities make Sanya the "base camp" for long-distance cross-border travel.
From "the seaside" to "the depths of the city", from vacation to experiencing life, from traditional Chinese medicine massage to visiting the morning market, from coastal sightseeing to island roaming, foreign tourists have increasingly diverse choices.
In order to catch this wave of "traffic", Hainan port services have been accelerated simultaneously. The Phoenix International Airport border inspection hall has added "Chinese, English and Russian" multilingual guidelines, established a multilingual volunteer service team, and implemented online entry card filling, online group visa application and inspection assistance software, shortening the customs clearance time for a single person to 30 seconds and the inspection time for a single flight by about 30 minutes.
On August 20 this year, Hainan’s visa-free policy was expanded again. Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam were included in the 30-day visa-free scope. The number of countries covered by Hainan’s 30-day visa exemption increased to 61. Following this, citizens from 88 countries around the world holding ordinary passports can come to Qiong without a visa, and the dividends of the Hainan Free Trade Port policy continue to be released.
