Spring Festival to record surge in foreign tourists

With Spring Festival around the corner, China's tourism market is heating up and a rush of international visitors is expected during the holiday period, industry players said.

As of Wednesday, the booking volume of inbound tours for the eight-day holiday, starting on Jan 28, the eve of Chinese New Year, surged over 200 percent year-on-year, according to Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency.

Most of these bookings have been made by travelers from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the United States, the agency noted. The top destinations include Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Harbin in Heilongjiang province, and Chengdu in Sichuan province.

Addressing a news conference in Beijing last week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said this year's Spring Festival celebrations will be the first after the festival was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

"We welcome foreign travelers visiting China to celebrate Chinese New Year together and experience the strong festive mood," he added.

China has been continuously optimizing its visa-free and visa-on-arrival policies to facilitate foreign travel to the country. It recently extended the duration of visa-free transit to 240 hours and increased the number of eligible ports of entry to 60, opening the door to more international travelers.

In 2024, the number of inbound and outbound foreign travelers at all Chinese ports reached 64.88 million, up 82.9 percent year-on-year. This included over 20 million visa-free entries, up 112.3 percent compared with 2023, according to the National Immigration Administration.

During the recently concluded New Year holiday, the number of foreigners entering the country increased nearly 34 percent year-on-year, data from the NIA showed.

Currently, international visitors transferring flights in Beijing can experience a half-day complimentary tour of the Chinese capital. The tourism promotion initiative, launched by Trip.com on Dec 27, is the first of its kind in Beijing.

Visitors can apply for participation in the tour at Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport. The tour includes complimentary shuttle services, foreign language tour guides, admission tickets to attractions and Wi-Fi services.

Those interested can choose to visit either the Badaling section of the Great Wall or the Beijing Central Axis, which includes visits to the Temple of Heaven, Qianmen Street and Tian'anmen Square.

So far, travelers from nearly 50 countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Singapore, have participated in the complimentary Beijing tour, according to Trip.com.

The agency also found that the top five favorite attractions in the Chinese capital for foreign travelers are Universal Studios, the Badaling Great Wall, the Mutianyu Great Wall, the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace.

In April, Trip.com launched a similar half-day complimentary tour service for foreigners transferring flights at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Li Xinjian, a professor at Beijing International Studies University, said that China has adopted preferential travel policies to provide more opportunities for foreigners to visit the country. "Various innovative measures have been taken across China to promote the deep integration of culture and tourism development," Li said.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn