What: China continues to ease COVID-19-related travel restrictions; however, Barclays expects that the remaining restrictions will continue to hurt traffic and sales for luxury brands in the near term.

Why it is important: International travellers’ quarantine time has been reduced by two days and inbound flight bans have been cancelled, leading to travel searches for international flights to triple since the announcement. The release streamlines the process for business travellers and sporting-event participants.

Quarantine durations have also been cut for locally infected people from seven days to five. Despite the needed relaxing of travel restrictions for retail, predictions for fourth-quarter reports remain realistic, expecting rolling lockdowns amid increased cases in recent weeks.

Barclays expects the recovery to begin fully in 2023.

China lifts flight bans