From May 15, foreign tour groups that take cruise ships and are received by domestic travel agencies can enter the country without a visa and stay for no more than 15 days from the cruise ports of 13 cities. Cruise ports in 13 cities can enter the whole group without a visa
From May 15, 2024, foreign tour groups (2 or more) who take a cruise ship and are received by a domestic travel agency can enter the country without a visa for the whole group from the cruise ports of 13 cities, including Tianjin, Dalian, Liaoning, Shanghai, Lianyungang in Jiangsu, Wenzhou and Zhoushan in Zhejiang, Xiamen in Fujian, Qingdao in Shandong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong, Beihai in Guangzhou, Haikou and Sanya in Hainan. The tour group must go to the next port with the same cruise ship until the cruise leaves the country, and the scope of activities is coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and Beijing. Cruise passengers "get off at the port, come and go quickly"
In order to facilitate the customs clearance of international cruise ships, the National Immigration Administration promotes the overseas on-board inspection mode of large cruise ships visiting Hong Kong, that is, according to the schedule of the cruise ship and the number of passengers carried in the port of visit, the border inspection authorities will send personnel to handle the border inspection procedures for passengers in advance, and apply the convenient customs clearance authentication code to realize the cruise passengers "get off at the port and come and go quickly".
Li Tao, deputy director of the Border Inspection Management Department of the National Immigration Administration, said that the border inspection authorities can exempt foreign passengers who enter the country by cruise ship from retaining fingerprint biometric information, and passengers who enter and exit the country on the same cruise ship can be exempted from stamping the entry and exit certificate and filling in the alien entry card, so as to further improve the efficiency of customs clearance for cruise passengers. The mainland cruise inbound tourism market has a good momentum of development
In the past 10 years, the global international cruise tourism market has maintained an average annual growth rate of 6%-8%. From February to April 2024, large international cruise ships from Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other countries arrived in Dalian, Shanghai, Tianjin and other ports.
Up to now, 21 international cruise ships have been operating in mainland ports, including Japan-South Korea routes and Vietnam routes departing from ports in China, as well as visiting port routes for foreign cruise ships.
Since 2016, Shanghai has implemented a pilot visa-free policy for international cruise ships, and since then, the number of cruise passengers has increased by an average of 10% per year. This time, the full implementation of the visa-free entry policy for foreign tour groups on cruise ships is more flexible and the scope of stay is larger than the pilot policy. This new policy is an "upgraded version" of Shanghai's visa-free entry pilot
With a coastline of 18,000 kilometers on the mainland, the port infrastructure has been gradually improved, and the tourism resources are abundant. In October 2016, the mainland piloted the visa-free entry policy for cruise tour groups in Shanghai, and this time the new policy is to expand the pilot policy of Shanghai to the whole country.
Mao Xu, director of the Department of Foreigner Management of the National Immigration Administration, said that Shanghai's pilot policy is limited to cruise ships entering the country from Shanghai port, and this time the cruise port of entry will be extended to all cruise ports along the coast, which is conducive to foreign cruise ships planning richer routes in advance. According to the characteristics of cruise tourism, the scope of tour group activities will be expanded to coastal provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and Beijing Municipality, which is conducive to the travel reception agency to plan and design more abundant shore tourism products for foreign tour groups, and fully appreciate the magnificent rivers and mountains of the mainland. "Sea Resort" is deeply loved by Chinese and foreign tourists
With the recent recovery of the international tourism market, the resumption of more international routes, and the implementation of visa-free policies and various facilitation measures between China and many countries, the popularity of overseas tourists visiting China continues to rise. International cruise ships are also known as "sea resorts", and this way of travel is also popular among Chinese and foreign tourists.
Statistics from the National Immigration Administration show that in the first quarter of 2024, the number of foreigners coming to China will more than triple compared with the same period in 2023. According to the big data monitoring of passenger flow in the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the May Day holiday in 2024, the total number of inbound and outbound tourists will reach 3.672 million, including 1.775 million inbound tourists and 1.897 million outbound tourists.
In Tianjin, in April 2024, the 275-day round-the-world route "Melody of the Seas" carried nearly 2,000 international tourists to call at the Tianjin International Cruise Home Port, the longest round-the-world product in history. With the berthing of the "Melody of the Sea" cruise ship, Tianjin will also welcome more cruise ships such as "Shibang Odyssey" and "Silver Shadow" in the near future. In 2024, Tianjin is expected to have 120 inbound and outbound cruise voyages, which will further activate the tourism market and drive the development of surrounding hotels, catering, shopping, culture and other industries. News link: The visa-free "circle of friends" continues to expand
The boom in inbound tourism is inseparable from China's recent multi-country visa-free policy.
In December 2023, China piloted a visa-free policy for six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia. In March 2024, China further piloted the visa-free policy for six countries: Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg.
In May 2024, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that in order to further promote people-to-people exchanges between China and foreign countries, China has decided to extend the visa-free policy for 12 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, until December 31, 2025. Holders of ordinary passports from the above-mentioned countries can enter China without a visa for business, sightseeing, visiting relatives and friends, and transiting through the border for no more than 15 days.
The continuous expansion of the visa-free "circle of friends" and the implementation of a series of measures to improve the convenience of inbound tourism have released a positive signal for China to further open up its tourism market.
(Source: CCTV News)