Guangzhou airport sees Central Asian travel boom

Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, has witnessed a surge in passenger arrivals from the five Central Asian nations.

According to official statistics released by the Baiyun Immigration Inspection Station on Tuesday, as of the end of Monday, about 28,000 people from the five Central Asian countries have entered the mainland via the airport this year, a record high and year-on-year increase of more than 460 percent.

The central Asian nations include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

"The mutual exemption of visa policy has eliminated cumbersome procedures, and the cooperation signal released by the (First) China-Central Asia Summit immediately made me decide to come to Guangzhou to expand the market," said Baidauletov Ardak, a business representative from Kazakhstan, upon his arrival at the airport on Tuesday.

The first China-Central Asia Summit was held in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, two years ago, and the second summit just concluded on Wednesday in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

China and Kazakhstan adopted mutual visa exemption policies in November 2023, while the visa exemption agreement between China and Uzbekistan officially came into effect on June 1.

The visa-free policy has made travel between China and Central Asia more convenient, said a statement released by the Baiyun Immigration Inspection Station.

Official statistics indicate that the number of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan passengers entering and exiting through the Baiyun International Airport significantly increased this year, with about 10,000 and 14,000 passenger visits so far, up year-on-year more than 1,200 percent and 340 percent, respectively.

The number of passenger visits from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan has also doubled when compared with the same period of the previous year, said the statement.

To facilitate the surge of passengers from Central Asia, the airport has scientifically assessed passenger flow, dynamically allocated resources, gradually implemented paperless customs clearance, provided multilingual services, and an enhanced customs clearance experience since the beginning of the year, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the station has utilized immigration management policies and measures to provide an all-weather customs clearance guarantee for inbound and outbound passengers, it said.