At 8:18 pm on April 30th, an aircraft carrying more than 160 passengers took off formally at Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. The aircraft will arrive at Sanya Phoenix International Airport at 0:01 on May 1. This will be the first entry-free tourism group to be received in Hainan after the implementation of the visa-free entry policy for the 59 countries.

On April 18, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference in Beijing. The National Bureau of Immigration informed the conference that, with the approval of the State Council, since May 1, 2018, 59 countries have been implemented in Hainan Province. The entry-avoidance policy for entry of personnel further supports Hainan’s comprehensive deepening of reform and opening up.

It is understood that the implementation of the visa-free entry policy includes the following three main areas: First, expand the scope of visa-free countries. The country that has applied the visa-free entry policy has been liberalized from 26 countries to 59 countries, which is conducive to encouraging more foreigners to travel to Hainan to form a more open pattern. The second is to extend the visa-free stay. After the visa-free entry, the stay time was uniformly extended from 15 days or 21 days to 30 days, which promoted more active development of the inbound tourism market. The third is to relax restrictions on the number of exemptions. Under the premise of retaining the invitation mode of the travel agency invitation, the team will be exempted from visa waiver for personal visa exemption, satisfying the needs of foreign tourists for personal travel. (Reporter Ye Junyi)