The 15 day visa free policy upon entry helps China's inbound tourism recover rapidly
According to reports, on March 7, 2024, China announced the expansion of visa free countries and implemented visa free policies for individuals holding ordinary passports in six countries: Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. From March 14th to November 30th, the above-mentioned countries may enter China without a visa if they hold a regular passport for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, and transit for no more than 15 days. After the announcement, the search volume for entry and exit tickets for relevant countries on various tourism platforms has rapidly increased.
According to Ctrip data, in February of this year, among the six countries that were exempt from visas, the flight capacity from Hungary to China has doubled compared to the same period in 2019, and the flight capacity from Belgium to China has recovered to about 90% of the same period in 2019. It is expected that the number of tourists from these two countries to China will grow the fastest. Among the other countries, except for Ireland, which currently has no flights to China, most have resumed to 50% to 60% of the same period in 2019.
As of 12:00 noon today, the search volume for tickets related to the same trip has increased nearly four times compared to the same period the day before yesterday. The six countries that are exempt from visas this time have close exchanges with China in tourism and sightseeing. Among them, the daily booking volume of inbound flights to Austria in March increased by 70% compared to January to February, and the daily booking volume of inbound flights to Switzerland increased by 52%. The round-trip flight booking volume between cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanjing and related countries is relatively high. In addition, on the Qunar platform, the search volume for routes departing from Zurich today has increased by nearly four times compared to last week.
Qin Jing, Vice President of Ctrip Group, stated that expanding the visa free scope once again conveys a signal and determination of China's active opening up, and will further accelerate personnel exchanges, economic and trade exchanges, and tourism development between China and Europe. At present, China has formed a "visa free circle of friends" with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in Southeast Asia, which is conducive to promoting cross-border tourism and supply chain recovery. In 2023, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Hungary and other countries ranked around 30th among the source countries of inbound tourists to China. With the implementation of visa free policies for these long-distance source countries, inbound tourism to China will further develop in 2024.
Recently, multiple departments have taken joint actions to optimize the entry payment environment, upgrade payment facilitation for key cultural and tourism scenes such as tourist attractions, resorts, cultural and museum venues, entertainment venues, star rated hotels, and cultural and commercial tourism complexes, and optimize the travel and service experience of inbound personnel. Previously, China had implemented a visa free entry policy for individuals holding ordinary passports from six countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia, in December 2023. As of January 9th, the number of visa free entry personnel from these six countries has reached 147000.
As the first threshold for foreign tourists to enter China, a series of visa free policies undoubtedly open the door to tourism for foreign tourists. In the future, they will play a sustained and long-term role in promoting the inbound tourism, business trips, and study tours market. The relevant person in charge of Tongcheng Research Institute also stated that opening up visa free entry policies to more countries indicates that China's attitude towards encouraging the development of the inbound and outbound tourism market is more open, which will be conducive to the rapid development of China's inbound tourism market.
