{"id":21811,"date":"2025-12-21T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21811"},"modified":"2025-12-21T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T03:20:33","slug":"china-eases-visa-rules-for-india-tapping-into-us21-6-billion-travel-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=21811","title":{"rendered":"China eases visa rules for India, tapping into US$21.6 billion travel market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2025\/12\/19\/c396ceef-640c-4dda-82d8-d71d466adc9f_3f3e27d2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process for Indian nationals that could help it tap India\u2019s fast-growing travel market.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Chinese embassy in New Delhi said earlier this month that Indian citizens would be able to apply for visas online from December 22, sparing them time-consuming initial in-person visits to the embassy or other consular offices in the country.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The move follows the <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">resumption of direct flights<\/span> between India and China in October after a five-year suspension. While the world\u2019s two most populous nations remain strategic rivals competing for regional influence, relations have gradually thawed since a <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">deadly Himalayan border clash<\/span> in 2020, analysts said.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cGenerally speaking, China is relaxing its visa controls, and for China-India the megatrend is to have more engagement with each other,\u201d said Victor Gao, vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation think tank in Beijing. \u201cGranting more flexibility to Indians to visit China \u2026 would be highly appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The simpler visa policy could help China grab a bigger slice of India\u2019s lucrative outbound travel market, which was worth US$21.6 billion last year and is predicted to balloon to US$61.7 billion by 2033, according to a report by Indian research firm MarketsandMarkets.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Indian tourism to China was growing fast before 2020, with 142,000 Indian nationals visiting the country in 2019, a 19 per cent increase from the previous year, according to travel industry platform India Outbound. But travel then cratered amid the pandemic and growing political tensions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3337089\/china-eases-visa-rules-india-tapping-us216-billion-travel-market?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[1242,832,13764,1390,2586,208,13765,151,13766,414],"class_list":["post-21811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-billion","tag-china","tag-eases","tag-india","tag-market","tag-rules","tag-tapping","tag-travel","tag-us21-6","tag-visa","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}