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China Regulates Tourism Forex Payment
The China State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued a circular Monday to regulate issues concerning foreign exchange payment by travel agencies.
A SAFE spokesman said that this move aims to standardize foreign exchange payment practices by travel agencies, prevent draining of the State's foreign exchange resources, and cooperate with the efforts made by the National Tourism Administration (NTA) to rectify the exit and entry tourism markets.
The circular regulates that only travel agencies ratified by the NTA to handle exit tourism businesses for Chinese citizens are allowed to buy foreign exchange, and the travel destinations must be those opened by the State to the domestic tourism industry.
It stipulates that travel agencies must use the foreign exchange they have bought to cover tourists' various expenditures when traveling overseas.
Domestically-funded international travel agencies are allowed to open special accounts for exit and entry tourism, and handle tourism foreign exchange payment within a limit ratified by the AFE.
The regulations go into effect from March 1.
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