Visa-free transit could be extended

And at a time when foreign tourist arrivals are falling, making it easier for them to arrive in the country would make sense.

Last year, the number of foreigners visiting Beijing was 3.57 million, a drop of 2.2 percent over the previous year, which saw a decline of 5.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Beijing Tourism Development Commission.

While figures on how many tourists to Beijing utilized the visa-free facility last year were not available, in 2014, about 40,000 did, according to Beijing Capital International Airport Co Ltd - roughly 1 in 90.

A report released earlier this year by London-based BMI Research Group said one of the drawbacks of the Chinese inbound tourism market was the visa regime.

Conventionally, visa regimes between nations are decided by reciprocity and China cannot grant visa-free entry to people of nations which do not return the favor.

A 72-hour visa seems a compromise by China - but also appears parsimonious. Perhaps it could be more generous.

A step in that direction is the recent announcement that eligible visitors or businesspeople to the Yangtze River Delta - arriving in Shanghai, Hangzhou or Nanjing - would have a 144-hour visa-free transit and be free to travel in the region.

Now, if more cities or clusters followed this and, say, increased the visa-free transit by many, many more hours, it would be a start.