Wu’s comments come after the Chinese government signalled it was ready to reopen its borders to foreign tourists following a three-year hiatus.

The Chinese embassy in the US has announced it will start reissuing all types of visas from Wednesday (15 March), three years after the country closed its borders due to the Covid pandemic.

According to the new regulations, travellers holding visas issued before 28 March 2020 will be allowed to use them as long as they are not expired. 

Areas that didn’t require a visa prior to the pandemic, such as the island of Hainan and the port of Shanghai, will go back to being visa-free.

Advantage Travel Partnership boss Julia Lo Bue-Said welcomed the announcement, calling China’s reopening "another major step in the full recovery of the travel industry".

"The removal of China’s travel restrictions will provide a significant boost to the global travel industry, with tens of millions travelling to and from the country each year," she said.

Lo Bue-Said also said she was expecting Advantage members to see "see a surge in bookings to China from both leisure and corporate travellers".

Her words were echoed by Abta, which said the new rules will once again put China on the radar of tour operators and travel agents.

"The reopening of China to foreign tourists will be great news, particularly for those tour operators who are specialists in this amazing country and have been unable to send customers to China for three years," a spokesperson told TTG.

Wu told TTG she was confident the new rules would also apply to UK tourists. “We are very confident that, following the news US travellers will be able to obtain tourist visas from 15 March, the news from China for UK travellers is imminent,” she said.

Wu added Wendy Wu Tours would advise agents "immediately" upon confirmed news of the visa situation.

In December, China confirmed it would drop its zero-Covid policy early in the new year and reopen its borders, before scrapping quarantine rules for international arrivals a month later.

UK legacy carriers British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have already capitalised on the relaxation of travel rules, announcing in February they would restart operations between the UK and China in the spring.