Morocco Bans Chinese Tourists Over COVID Outbreak

(CTN News) – While Thailand may have opened its doors to Chinese tourists, the same cannot be said of other nations, particularly Morocco, which has barred all mainland visitors from traveling to its African nation.

According to a report on Saturday, Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn expressed his ministry’s “great pleasure” at learning that China would begin enforcing new border controls on January 8.

He said that this was “long-awaited excellent news for Thailand.” However, other nations have not extended a comparable welcome to China.

As of Thursday, January 5, Canada and Australia began requiring interim pre-flight Covid-19 testing for travelers from China, including Hong Kong and Macau, according to the Bangkok Post.

The United States, Britain, Israel, Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, and India had previously taken similar actions.

In response to growing worries that mainland visitors would spread a new strain of Covid-19, Morocco has further barred all arrivals from China, regardless of ethnicity.

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said yesterday night that all travelers traveling from China would be turned away from tomorrow.

Access to the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco [will be prohibited] to all travelers coming from the People’s Republic of China, regardless of their nationality, in light of the development of the health situation related to Covid-19 in China and to prevent a new wave of contaminations in Morocco and all of its consequences.

“The deep relationship between the two peoples and the strategic alliance between the two nations are unaffected in any way by the most recent steps.”

Morocco has not specified how long Chinese visitors will be barred from entering.

About 200,000 Chinese visitors came to North Africa in 2018, and the administration had plans to draw 500,000 Chinese tourists annually before the outbreak in 2019.

After almost three years of restrictions, China ended its stringent zero-Covid approach of mass testing, lockdowns, and border controls.

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