Several firms have announced resumption of passenger ferry services between Incheon and cities in China, and started selling travel packagesPandemic-induced 3-year break devastated ferry businesses; travel restrictions on travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau were lifted this month.
The Korea-China sea travel routes are likely to resume operation next month as the international car ferry services at Incheon ferry terminal plan to end the three-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several firms have announced the resumption of passenger transport services between Incheon and various cities in China and started selling travel packages.
The exact date of the resumption is yet unannounced, but the industry’s reopening plan comes in the wake of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters’ announcement earlier this month to lift all travel regulations including mandatory PCR tests on travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The health authorities decided to end travel restrictions against China and neighbouring countries because China has seen a stable trend in new cases of Covid-19 for over a month after the Spring Festival holidays in January, and because there have been no signs of the coronavirus variant in and outside the country.
The pandemic-induced three-year break has devastated the Incheon Ferry Terminal’s ferry businesses. Before the pandemic, over 1 million passengers travelled via car ferries to Korea from 10 Chinese cities, including Qingdao, Dalian and Tianjin in 2019.
Since the terminal had all passenger transport halted in February 2020, terminal and shipping companies have only been transporting cargo.
The Incheon Port Authority (IPA), which manages the port city’s international ferry terminal, is in preparations to fully operate its customs, immigration and quarantine, as well as facilities like duty-free, restaurants and currency exchange offices.
Meanwhile, Korea and China will also see increased flight availability, as the authorities of the two countries agreed to increase the number of major destinations.
Source: SCMP
