Tourist flights resume to foreign destinations

Dozens of Chinese tourists boarded an Emirates Airlines flight at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport to go sightseeing on Monday morning.

The flight took off a little after midnight and carried the passengers to the United Arab Emirates, where they will tour Dubai and Abu Dhabi for six days before traveling to Egypt for another 10 days.

It was the first group of domestic tourists to travel across the border in three years, marking the official restart of China's outbound group travel business.

According to Zhao Wenzhi, president of the GZL International Travel Service, more than 500 domestic tourists organized by his company were to go across the border to foreign destinations on Monday. They ranged in age from 24 to 80, with 80 percent being retirees. Of those, 150 were participating in group tours, he said.

In addition to the UAE and Egypt, Thailand and Cambodia were destinations for domestic tourists on Monday.

To better serve outbound tourists, the Guangzhou airport opened special check-in counters to improve efficiency. A special send-off ceremony was organized at the airport on Sunday night.

Zhao said the domestic tourists will be warmly welcomed by the destination countries and will attend welcome banquets, accept flowers and be given special gifts by local tourism officials upon arrival.

"Although outbound travel had been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous three years, the company never stopped its contacts, communication and exchanges with foreign counterparts, tourism departments, hotels and related organizations to discuss the resumption of business," Zhao said.

Tourist groups organized by Zhao's company will also leave for Kenya, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Fiji and New Zealand in February, he said.