“China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2024–2025” Released — Growing Demand for Travel to China Continues

The China Tourism Academy recently released the “China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2024–2025” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”). Inbound tourism has become a significant indicator of China’s high-level openness to the world. With the continuous implementation of facilitation policies regarding visas, payments, and accommodations, the inbound tourism market in 2024 has shown a clear recovery and growth trend.

Accelerated Market Recovery

Since last year, terms like “China Inbound Tourism” and “China Travel” have garnered significant international attention. The Report indicates that in 2024, China received 131.9 million inbound tourists, a 61% year-on-year increase, recovering to over 90% of the 2019 levels, and significantly surpassing the recovery level of 2023.

The rapid recovery of the inbound tourism market is closely linked to a series of promotion policies, including visa, payment, and accommodation facilitation. As of the end of 2024, China unilaterally implemented visa-free entry policies for 38 countries. Combined with 25 countries that have mutual visa exemptions with China, citizens from a total of 63 countries can enter China visa-free with ordinary passports. The visa-free policy has had a significant stimulating effect on inbound tourism.

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In 2024, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan regions remained the primary inbound tourism markets, with 104.96 million visitors, a 54% year-on-year increase, accounting for about 80% of the inbound tourism market. The recovery of the foreign inbound tourism market has accelerated, with 26.94 million visitors, a 96% year-on-year increase.

The visa-free policy has had a notable effect on nearby markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, making them the fastest-recovering foreign source markets. Several travel agencies have noted that as Southeast Asian tourists travel to China more frequently, they have higher expectations for in-depth experiences, indicating substantial potential in the mid-to-high-end market. In November of the previous year, China trialed unilateral visa-free entry for South Korea and Japan, and it is anticipated that the tourism markets from these two countries to China will accelerate recovery this year. Additionally, more tourists from emerging potential source markets such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, and Mexico are choosing to travel to China.

The Report shows that Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have high inbound tourism reception volumes and recovery levels. In 2024, these four cities each received close to or over 4 million inbound tourists, with Shenzhen and Shanghai receiving the highest numbers, at 6.71 million and 9.77 million (overnight) respectively. Beijing and Shanghai had the highest number of foreign tourists, at 3.21 million and 4.97 million respectively. These cities not only possess rich cultural heritage, modern urban landscapes, and comprehensive infrastructure and tourism facilities but also have strong international recognition and appeal, making them the preferred destination cities for foreign tourists entering China.

Optimistic Outlook

The Report indicates that in the first quarter of this year, searches for flights and accommodations in China by overseas individuals have surpassed the levels of the same period last year, suggesting that the demand for travel to China will continue to rise in the near future. With the further implementation of facilitation policies regarding visas, payments, and accommodations, continuous improvement of inbound tourist reception facilities, enhancement of service quality, and active overseas marketing and promotion activities by various regions, China’s inbound tourism is expected to fully recover from the impact of the pandemic by 2025.

The diverse demands of inbound tourists are driving the diversification of tourism supply. Some travel agencies that originally focused on outbound tourism are leveraging their extensive industry experience and international resources to tap into the potential of the inbound tourism market and are transitioning into this field. Meanwhile, to cater to the individual traveler market, some service providers are actively developing local group tour products such as one-day and half-day tours, offering more flexible and convenient options for inbound tourists.

The Report points out that technologies like AI are deeply integrating into the travel service industry, potentially leading to profound transformations and reshaping the existing industry landscape. Internationally, some mature AI travel planning tools have emerged, and China has also seen the development of vertical AI platforms specifically serving inbound tourists. In the future, as these tools are adopted by more inbound tourists, attractions, accommodations, restaurants, retail, and other tourism suppliers, as well as travel service providers, will need to enhance their visibility to increase the likelihood of being recommended by AI. Additionally, AI technology will drive the standardization of services such as travel planning, real-time explanations, and guided tours.

Collaborative Promotion of Development

The Report recommends that in the coming period, China should continue to enhance the convenience of travel to and within the country. It is advisable to further optimize existing visa facilitation policies and timely extend the applicability period of current unilateral visa-free policies. Implementing visa facilitation policies for specific groups, utilizing digital technologies and tools to improve visa application and customs clearance efficiency, exploring the implementation of electronic visas and intelligent entry procedures, simplifying visa application procedures, accelerating visa approval processes, enhancing entry and exit efficiency, and reducing tourists’ waiting times are also suggested.

The Report also suggests continuously identifying and addressing the bottlenecks and pain points encountered by foreign tourists during their travels, such as English electronic maps, reservations for popular attractions, access to foreign apps, and language barriers, to enhance the travel experience in China. Collaborating with domestic and international travel service providers to update and widely distribute multilingual versions of travel guides to China, covering basic information such as visas, geography, historical and cultural background, language and currency, climate conditions, safety and hygiene, communication networks, as well as travel information like transportation methods, tourism resources, accommodation, and dining recommendations, to continually improve the transparency and dissemination of travel information to China.