"It's amazing", "It's too fast, it's so punctual"...... How do foreign tourists feel about visa-free entry to China?

Source: Global Times

[Global Times reporter Chen Zishuai] "Now is a good time to travel to China for an unforgettable vacation. The website of France's Euronews TV reported on the 18th that China should be at the top of your travel bucket list in 2024, because China has rich culture, food and futuristic cities. Recently, China's "visa-free" circle of friends has continued to expand, and more and more foreign tourists have come to China for sightseeing or business activities. The Global Times reporter interviewed foreign tourists, travel agencies, airlines and other people, and found that the attractiveness of China's visa-free policy is emerging.

On January 26, 2024, foreign tourists play at the Grand Canyon Glass Bridge in Zhangjiajie, Hunan. (Visual China)

"Too fast, too punctual"

From March 19th to 21st, the cruise ship "Atania", carrying nearly 1,000 tourists from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other countries, visited China and docked at Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal. Hu Jiying, head of CYTS International Travel Co., Ltd., the person in charge of the reception of German-speaking tourists, told the Global Times that the ship visited China for the first time after the epidemic thanks to China's latest visa-free policy for some European countries. Many people said that the trip was worthwhile, some praised China's cultural heritage as "amazing", some praised China's high-speed rail as "too fast and too punctual", and some tourists shared, "This is my first time in China, and I feel that China has both a traditional culture and a modern and open side." The Chinese people are warm and friendly, welcome us foreigners, and hope to have the opportunity to come to China next time. ”

On the second day of the Lunar New Year this year, a chartered flight from Kuala Lumpur landed at Shenyang Taoxian International Airport. "This is the first Southeast Asian charter tour group received in Northeast China in the past decade. Diao Shixia, general manager of the Shenyang branch of Spring and Autumn Tourism, told the Global Times that these tourists are visa-free to enter China, "and they all have a great time." "They experienced special activities such as catching up with the big market and watching ice sculptures. Diao Shixia said that Malaysians themselves are very yearning for the ice and snow culture of Northeast China, and after coming to Northeast China, they have received "preferential treatment" and "preference", and have been deeply infected by the humanistic enthusiasm of Northeast China.

It is reported that on March 14 this year, China announced that it would try out unilateral visa exemption for six countries: Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The visa-free policy has greatly stimulated the demand for inbound (Chinese) travel by international tourists. According to data provided to the Global Times by online travel platform Ctrip, since the beginning of this year, as of March 16, the overall orders for domestic inbound travel have increased by more than 3 times year-on-year, and an increase of about 50% over the same period in 2019.

The attractiveness of China's visa-free policy is emerging, and many European tourism practitioners and ordinary people have expressed their "yearning" to the Global Times reporter. "If China offers visa-free travel to my country, I will definitely go to China. Anastasia, a female college student from Latvia, told the Global Times that she was most interested in China's cultural and historical landmarks and wanted to visit China's countryside.

In fact, attracting and hosting international tourists is not an easy task. Travel agency practitioners told reporters that the economy of some European countries is not very good, prices have risen greatly, and they have generally reduced their travel expenditures, "There are not many people who can afford to travel to China." "The visa-free exemption is particularly good news for European tourists. Li Zhaohui, chief representative of the Beijing office of the German National Tourism Administration, who has long been dealing with the European tourism market, told the Global Times that the visa exemption not only saves trouble, but also saves more than 100 euros in visa fees for a single person, which has a certain attraction for European families.

More practitioners are entering the track

The visa-free policy has also promoted the development of China's tourism and related industries. Li Zhaohui told the Global Times that many Chinese travel agencies that used to undertake outbound travel business have also begun to go abroad to promote Chinese destinations to overseas tourists. The continuous recovery of inbound tourism and the broad market prospects have allowed more domestic practitioners to enter this track.

According to data provided to the Global Times, as of mid-March, there were 85,500 domestic inbound tourism-related enterprises, and since December 2022, a total of 441 inbound tourism-related enterprises have been registered.

In addition, many related industries have begun to deploy in the Chinese market in advance. For inbound and outbound tourism, the layout of international flights is an important part. To this end, the Global Times asked a number of European airlines, and they all said that attracting international tourists to China is an important direction for the company to make efforts in the future.

In a statement sent to the Global Times, the headquarters of the European aviation group Air France KLM said that China is an important market for Air France KLM. Regarding China's visa-free policy, Lamin, chief customer officer at British Airways headquarters, responded to the Global Times, saying, "Expanding the crew bases in Beijing and Shanghai will be an important effort for us." ”

"It is expected that there will be a significant increase in inbound tourism groups in the second half of the year"

Anastasia also bluntly said that the language barrier and the cost of traveling to China are her concerns. The Global Times reporter paid attention to the fact that since the introduction of the visa-free policy, there are voices overseas that China's digital payment, attraction reservations and language barriers are all factors that reduce their willingness to travel to China. In this regard, Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, told the Global Times, "We should also pay more attention to the needs of individual inbound tourists, such as increasing the richness of the fragmented resource supply of urban tourism, the fluency of language scenes, and the convenience of micropayment scenarios." In addition, Zhou Weihong also mentioned that due to the lack of multilingual tour guides in the society, it is necessary to encourage return in a timely manner and increase training efforts.

The Forbidden City is a must-see attraction for foreigners visiting Beijing for the first time, and Fan Yongli, manager of the International Tourism Center of China Peace International Tourism Co., Ltd., also told the Global Times that due to the current limit on the number of visitors and the reservation system that is only open seven days in advance, there is no guarantee that tourists will be able to visit the Forbidden City. "We hope to open a reservation channel for foreigners, or appropriately increase the number of visitors per day, or advance the reservation time to 1-3 months. ”

Skift, a U.S. travel industry website, reported that China has made a series of efforts to boost inbound tourism. Recently, the People's Bank of China launched three major measures to improve the convenience of mobile payment for foreign visitors to China, including improving the efficiency of Alipay and WeChat binding overseas bank cards, simplifying identity verification arrangements, and increasing the single transaction limit for foreign visitors to China from US$1,000 to US$5,000.

It is reported that the Chinese government and practitioners have been focusing on polishing their own tourism products, hoping to seize the opportunity in the visa-free policy window. "Judging from the current booking situation, it is expected that there will be a significant increase in inbound tourism teams in the second half of the year. Fan Yongli said in an interview with the Global Times.