Central Asian countries welcome Chinese tourists

Source: Economic Daily

The opening ceremony of China's "Kazakhstan Year of Tourism" 2024 was held in Beijing a few days ago, once again boosting the popularity of Chinese tourists to Central Asia. Many Chinese tourists have walked into the natural landscapes or majestic ruins of the ancient silk country to experience the magnificence and romance of the Western Regions, and also promoted the tourism cooperation between China and Central Asia to deepen and bear fruit.

The reason why Central Asia stands out among many long-established outbound travel destinations such as Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and European countries is mainly due to its unique tourism resources, as well as the cultural identity and attraction derived from thousands of years of exchanges.

Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia, is one of the largest landlocked countries in the world, with a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometers. Famous attractions in the country include the Charyn Gorge, the Karajiye Depression, the Dombale Petroglyphs, the ruins of the Acortas Palace, and many more, with diverse natural landscapes and different architectural styles. In Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, there is a street named after the Chinese musician Xian Xinghai - Xian Xinghai Street. Xian Xinghai once composed immortal national music such as "Sacred Battle" here.

Uzbekistan is a veritable ancient country on the "Silk Road", with three historical cities, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, and dozens of historical and cultural relics preserved. The old Central Asian proverb "I would like to give out a bag of gold just to see Khiva" is a well-known example of the former prosperity of the thousand-year-old city. At present, the project for the protection and restoration of historical monuments in the ancient city of China-Uzbekiva has been successfully completed, waiting for Chinese tourists to unveil the mysterious historical veil.

Tajikistan is mountainous and covers more than 90% of the country's land area, so it is nicknamed "the land of high mountains" and is highly sought after by explorers from all over the world. Unlike most Central Asian countries, Tajikistan is extremely rich in water resources, and is the birthplace of the main rivers in Central Asia, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, ranking eighth in the world in terms of water reserves and the world's first in terms of per capita water possession. Located in central Tajikistan, the Phychenko Glacier is more than 70 kilometers long, and the maximum thickness of the glacier is about 1,000 meters, making it the longest glacier in the world except for the Antarctic and the Arctic.

Kyrgyzstan is known as the "Little Switzerland of Central Asia", with a variety of natural landscapes such as mountain lakes, glaciers, rivers, forests and steppes. There are more than 2,000 alpine lakes in the territory, including Lake Issyk-Kul, the second largest mountain lake in the world, and is also known as the "City of a Thousand Lakes". The National Historical Museum of Kyrgyzstan is one of the largest museums in Central Asia, with a collection of more than 130,000 cultural relics, which treasures the most valuable history and civilization of Kyrgyzstan.

About 80% of Turkmenistan is covered by the Karakum Desert, but the capital city of Ashgabat is clean and bright, and most of the building facades are inlaid with white marble, which is figuratively called the "City of Marble". Located in the heart of the Karakum Desert, the Dawaza gas pit has been burning since it was ignited in 1971, creating a "hell's gate" scene.

The continuous release of China's outbound tourism demand is a necessary condition for the tourism boom in Central Asia. Since 2010, the number of Chinese outbound tourists has continued to grow, from 57 million in 2010 to 155 million in 2019, an increase of 171.93%. In the post-epidemic era, China's outbound travel demand has gradually recovered. From February 6, 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the list of three batches of resumption of outbound group tours, and 138 countries and regions have resumed outbound group tours and "air ticket + hotel" business, which has reached the level of 2019. According to the Annual Report on the Development of China's Outbound Tourism (2023-2024) released by the China Tourism Academy, the number of outbound tourists from the mainland will exceed 87 million in 2023.

The recovery trend of outbound travel continues smoothly into 2024. According to the data of the National Immigration Administration, during the 2024 New Year's Day holiday, China's border inspection authorities inspected a total of 5.179 million people entering and leaving the country, with a daily average of 1.726 million passengers, an increase of 4.7 times compared with the 2023 New Year's Day holiday, and has recovered to the level of the same period in 2019. The World Tourism Alliance (WTA) recently released the "China Outbound Tourism Market Prosperity Report" for the first half of 2024, pointing out that at the beginning of 2024, many favorable policies have stimulated the recovery of the outbound tourism market, injecting a boost into the market recovery. With the increasing willingness of mainland residents to travel abroad, the China Tourism Academy predicts that the number of Chinese outbound tourists will reach 130 million in 2024.

China and the five Central Asian countries have a high degree of strategic consensus on promoting the development of tourism.

First, countries attach great importance to the development of tourism. The Chinese government has positioned tourism as a strategic pillar industry and a modern service industry that satisfies the people. Kazakhstan has made tourism one of the seven priority sectors for development and has set up a "priority tourism zone" in the country. Uzbekistan has continuously updated its tourism development strategy, established special economic zones in Samarkand, Bukhara and other cities along the Silk Road, and announced that it will focus on improving infrastructure construction, promoting tourism consumption, supporting tourism enterprises, standardizing tourism routes, and expanding tourism projects in 2024. In order to develop tourism and increase employment and income, Tajikistan has established a tourism development centre at the National University of Commerce. Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan have formulated tourism development plans, clarified the annual growth target of the tourism industry, and accelerated the improvement of laws and regulations related to the tourism industry.

Second, countries regard tourism cooperation as an important part of bilateral people-to-people exchanges and practical cooperation. The Xi'an Declaration of the China-Central Asia Summit pointed out that China and the five Central Asian countries will continue to consolidate people-to-people cooperation in education, science, culture and tourism, further strengthen tourism cooperation and jointly formulate China-Central Asia tourism routes.

The third is to take customs clearance facilitation and direct shipping as the starting point to solve the pain points of Chinese tourists' outbound travel. Uzbekistan has implemented visa-free access for Chinese tourists since 2021, and Chinese citizens will have a 10-day visa-free period with a valid passport and a ticket to a third country. In November 2023, the China-Kazakhstan Visa Exemption Agreement came into effect, allowing citizens of both sides to obtain a visa-free stay of up to 30 days in each other's countries. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan implement electronic visas for Chinese citizens. Since 2023, direct flights between China and Central Asia have resumed one after another, and new routes have been continuously explored. At present, it is possible to reach the capitals of Central Asian countries or popular tourist cities by direct flights from Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Urumqi, Sanya and other cities.

In 2023, a total of 217,000 Chinese tourists visited Kazakhstan, a 12-fold increase over 2022, more than 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Uzbekistan, and the number of Chinese tourists visited Tajikistan increased by 390%. The explosion of China-Central Asia tourism is not only an important achievement of people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between China and Central Asia, but also a true portrayal of the people-to-people ties between China and Central Asia.