Jenny Zhang has plans to travel to China soon to reunite with her 100-year-old mum, and she has welcomed a move to give Australians visa-free entry for short trips.
“This is the best policy. It will provide great convenience to Chinese people living in Australia,” she said.
“The Chinese community is very happy about this news.”
The 15-day visa-free travel for Australians was announced by Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Monday, after a formal meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
(Reuters: Mick Tsikas/Pool)
“We agreed to provide each other with reciprocal access to five-year multiple entry visas for tourism, business and visiting family members — so as to better facilitate personal exchanges, China will also include Australia in its Visa Waiver Program,” the premier said.
This change will also save Australians about $110, the current cost for a single-entry tourist visa.
The new visa-free travel scheme is due to come in within the next few months.
China’s tourism industry peaked in 2019 at a value of $580 billion and has been recovering slowly, according to Statista.
They had forecast that it could take another five years to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.
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Not everyone happy with move
While Ms Zhang was thrilled with the upcoming change, Ramila Chanisheff, the president of the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association said it would not help members of her community.
“Our family members … we can not even talk to them — let alone visit them,” she told the ABC.
“Not all of us will be given visas to visit our family members. And if we do, we will be worried about our safety.”
Dawa Sangmo, the Chinese liaison officer of the Tibet Information Office in Canberra raised similar worries.
“The visa-free policy is not only an issue that relates to our safety, but a matter that is more beneficial to China and its government,” she told the ABC.
There was not much detail in the announcement, but Premier Li did mention it would be “reciprocal”, making it easier for Chinese travellers to enter Australia.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the second highest amount of tourists visiting Australia came from China, only behind arrivals from New Zealand, as of April this year.
However, overall, the amount of people travelling out of China is down 40 per cent from pre-COVID levels in 2019, Reuters reported.
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