Foreign visitors get tourism New Year off to a flying start

Takemoto Akitoshi decided to act on his New Year wish after he learned China had waived visa applications for Japanese travelers in late November.

"I've long looked forward to visiting China, especially now that I have time on my hands after retirement," said Akitoshi, aged in his 70s and from Tokyo.

He had planned to apply for a visa, and was thrilled to be spared the trouble.

"It was a smooth arrival," said Akitoshi who traveled with his wife to the country for the first time, and celebrated the arrival of the new year in Beijing.

He said he was stunned by the hutong alleys, Central Axis, Palace Museum and Great Wall.

"It's impressive that the city has so many world cultural heritage sites, and you can get a good taste of the profound history," he said.

He hiked on the Mutianyu Great Wall to watch the sunrise on the first day of the year, observed giant pandas at close quarters at the Beijing Zoo and savored distinctive dishes including roast duck and mutton hotpot.

The couple, along with 20 other Japanese travelers, were among the first overseas tourists to visit China without visas in 2025.

"It marked a good beginning," said Xie Lin, an inbound tour guide based in Beijing who received the Japanese travelers.

He said many Japanese travelers have shown a strong desire to visit China and experience Chinese culture with the recent advent of the visa-free policy. "Many of them wanted to come as soon as possible," Xie noted.

Sweet deals

The capital is one of the major cities across the country that have benefited from a slew of favorable policies to stimulate inbound tourism.

From January to October, the city welcomed 3.17 million inbound tourists, a 198.8 percent surge over the same period the previous year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism reported.

The growth in inbound tourism is partly attributed to the optimization of visa-free and transit visa-free policies, according to the "2024 Beijing Tourism Consumption Report "by Tongcheng Travel, a major domestic travel agency based in Jiangsu province. Spain, Malaysia, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand have significantly benefited from the optimization of visa policies, the report said.

In recent years, authorities have continuously sweetened deals to woo inbound travelers.

In December 2023, the country implemented a visa-free policy for passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia.

Since then, more countries have been included. To date, ordinary passport holders from 38 countries can enter China without a visa for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, exchange visits, and have a transit period of no more than 30 days.

China also announced in mid-December further relaxations of the visa-free transit policy, with extension of foreign travelers' period of stay, and expansion of the list of accessible ports and provincial-level regions.

Eligible travelers transiting to a third country or region will be permitted to stay in the country for up to 240 hours, or 10 days, up from 72 or 144 hours, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Those favorable policies have given rise to the growing eagerness of international tourists to visit the country.

See the sights, feel all right

Dou Junjie, who has arranged cycling tours to Beijing's historical and cultural areas such as the Central Axis and hutong alleys for over a decade, said the number of his guests from abroad doubled last year.

"European guests have been in the majority, and they have shown great enthusiasm for the Central Axis and Peking Opera," Dou said.

From January to November 2024,29.21 million foreigners entered the country, an increase of 86.2 percent year-on-year, the immigration administration reported.

It added that 17.45 million of them took advantage of the transit visa exemption policy to visit the country, an increase of 123.3 percent year-on-year.

On New Year's Day, the immigration administration tracked 185,000 entries and exits of foreign nationals, up 33.6 percent on the same period last year.

On Jan 1, more than 300 South Korean tourists arrived via a cruise ship in Yantai in East China's Shandong province for a three-day trip.

Electronic self-service entry cards have been developed for foreigners, biometric data collection equipment has been set up in advance, and the information collection and inspection processes optimized to further improve the efficiency of customs clearance, said Sun Feixiang, an official with Yantai border inspection station.

Wuzhen water town in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, received 26 Thai travelers on the same day.

Signs at its major scenic areas have both Chinese and English explanations. Dedicated tour guides who speak English, Thai and Japanese are also available to help inbound travelers.

Fu Yifu, a senior official with the Star Atlas Institute of Finance based in Jiangsu, said these are all proof of the country's successful measures to facilitate international exchanges. Convenience brought by related policies will encourage international tourists to explore cultural landscapes across China and help promote development of the tourism industry.

Convenience key

In addition to the visa and transit policies, government organs, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Ministry of Commerce have worked together in recent years to improve the convenience of travel, payment and communication services, and accommodation for foreign nationals in China. This has driven the development of related industries such as tourism, transportation, and catering.

Wang Wei, a senior official with major online travel agency Trip.com Group, forecast the inbound tourism market was about to enter a stage of high-quality development. Government support for policies related to inbound tourism has brought new opportunities for the market, he said.

"For example, the new visa-exemption policy for foreigners in transit, not only extends the stay of international tourists but also addresses the issue of cross-regional movement," Wang said.

"In the past, those tourists might only stay at the airport when transiting through China, but the new visa-exemption policy will further utilize China's rich tourism resources, and there will be great market opportunities in the future," he added.

Overseas searches for popular China routes climbed more than 500 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of last year, Trip.com reported.

In the first half of 2024, inbound tourism bookings surged nearly 200 percent, exceeding the level of the same period in 2019, according to the travel agency. In the third quarter, hotel bookings for inbound tourists grew by about 100 percent.

"It is worth noting that 25 percent of inbound tourists visited China multiple times, which reflects the strong appeal of China's tourism resources to international tourists," Wang said.

Among them, bookings from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and European countries with visa exemptions, saw significant growth compared with 2019, he added.

At its Global Partner Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Dec 18, co-founder and chairman of Trip.com Group Liang Jianzhang announced the results of a survey which revealed that safety, cleanliness, a long history, friendly people, and delicious food were among the most frequently mentioned aspects of China by foreign tourists.

"The potential for the development of inbound tourism is enormous, and the various 'pain points' are being gradually addressed," Liang said.

These rapidly growing numbers have brought business to domestic partners, including scenic spots, hotels, and other travel agencies, according to the travel agency.

Domestic appeal

The country's rich culture and tourism resources hold equal appeal for domestic travelers, who made 1.95 billion visits nationwide during the summer vacation from June to August, up 6 percent over the same period the previous year, according to the China Tourism Academy.

Tourism spending over the three months grew 8.3 percent year-on-year to 1.31 trillion yuan ($180 billion).

In the 2023-24 snow season, the country's winter tourism market hit over 400 million trips and generated over 550 billion yuan, setting a new high, according to Dai Bin, president of the tourism academy.

Structural data such as the travel radius of urban and rural residents during holidays, rural residents' travel rate, and the proportion of self-driving tours also showed a continuous expansion trend, Dai noted.

Major cities with rich and diverse tourism resources, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu of Sichuan province, Guangzhou of Guangdong province, and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, remained the top domestic destinations last year, according to Trip.com. Small getaways that offer off-the-beaten-track attractions, such as Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Tianshui in Gansu province, were also hotly sought by domestic travelers.

Increased numbers of flights and hotels, and reduced travel costs helped stimulate the wanderlust of domestic travelers, experts said.

For Akitoshi, his four-day trip has only piqued his interest in all of what China has to offer.

"People here are very friendly and hospitable, and the country is just amazing," he said.

He was greatly impressed when the Chinese tour operator arranged for a professional chef to deliver traditional Japanese cuisine for the holiday, so he could enjoy a touch of home amid the Chinese environs.

"I'll definitely come back and recommend my family and friends to travel in China," Akitoshi said.

"There are simply too many places worth seeing."