China is experiencing an uptick in inbound travelers as the country intensifies its efforts to attract foreign visitors through eased visa requirements and enhanced convenience.
During the first three months, overseas booking of trips to China on the country’s largest online travel agency Trip.com surged 188% from the same period a year ago. During the Easter weekend, the number of bookings climbed 146% year-on-year, data from the company showed.
Data from rival Tongcheng Travel also shows that since the beginning of 2024, its hotel service unit has seen a 136% increase in foreign guests compared to a year ago.
Zhou Xiaoguang, the general manager of Guilin Tang Dynasty Tours Co. Ltd., told Caixin that his company has welcomed five to six times more foreign guests than a year ago, although the number is still about half of what it was before the pandemic in 2019.
China has been encouraging more foreigners to enter the country since reopening after the pandemic, including waiving visa requirements for citizens from over 20 countries and making local digital payment services more international-user friendly.
“The significant relaxation of visa policies recently has played a huge role in boosting market demand. The proportion of guests from the European market has notably increased recently,” said Zhou.
In the latest move, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 7 announced a pilot program to exempt visa requirements for travelers from six countries including Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, foreign passport holders made 2.95 million trips to or from China in the first two months. The figure was 2.3 times more than in the November-December period and 41.5% of pre-pandemic levels.
Even as visitor numbers increase, expenditures per trip are declining. Data from Trip.com indicates a 10% year-over-year decrease in average spending for March, intensifying to a 12% drop during the Easter period.
Fang Zexi, an analyst at the Trip.com Research Institute, mainly links this downturn to the reduction in international flight prices, highlighting a uniform decrease in both airfare and the average cost of travel products.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
