Guilin has been granted 144-hour visa-free transit of ten ASEN countries

     Tang Congyuan, the mayor of Guilin Guangxi Region, disclosed that Guilin has been granted 144-hour visa-free transit of ten ASEN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries by the State Council, which has made Guilin the first prefecture-level city which carries out this policy. This news was reported on 6th Jan, 2015.

     In the Guilin Economics Work Conference, Tang Congyuan claimed that Guilin would strengthen the cultivation of international air routes and launch the related measures, aiming to have more and more foreign tourist enjoy the convenience of this new policy. Meanwhile, the government in Guilin would strive to implement other preferential tourism policies, such as the departure VAT rebate, quiz sport lottery and etc.



     The information from Exit and Entry Administration Department in Guilin demonstrated that Guilin has opened the new flight routes linking to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Bangkok in Thailand, Singapore and so on. The next move of the plan is to open the lines which direct to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Jakarta in Indonesia and other ASEN cities.

     According to the illustration of tourism departments in Guilin, tourist from ASEN countries had always been treated as the target customers in Guilin. Insiders of the tourism industry have the idea that the facilitation of entry procedures would entice much more overseas tourists to make their visits to Guilin, and also became an essential approach to lead Guilin to a path of becoming an international top-tier city.





     Since the policy of 72-hour visa-free transit was officially carried out last year, the covers of visitors from overseas soar up sharply. According to the statistics, by the year of 2014, the number of oversea visitors hit 2 million, and achieved the income of 42 billion, which has increased by 20% compared to the past.

     Tang Congyuan also pointed out that since the trail flight of “Air Travel in Lijiang” has made the grade, the blank page of air tour in Guangxi Region has been filled. This year, Guilin government would set up a company with HNA group named “Guilin Airline Travel Co, Ltd.”, which would cover the fields of air tour, financial services, and management of scenic areas, tourism resources development and so on, committed to establish three economic developing models including Aviation plus Tourism, Tourism plus Finance and Smart Tourism.