China has made a striking move to increase the global allure of its tourism. During that year, it will provide visa-free entry to citizens of nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries. The overall mission of this collaborative effort is to increase global visitation to the United States and energize our economic recovery. On July 16, the number of eligible countries will increase to 75 with Azerbaijan’s accession.
Under this new bilateral policy, travelers from 74 designated countries, including the United States, can travel freely in China visa-free for up to 30 days. Recently, citizens from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible for this entry. To top it off, four of our Middle Eastern allies are on it too. Such expansion is in line with China’s overall plan to ease travel and welcome more international visitors.
China reopened its borders to foreign tourists in early 2023 after unveiling draconian COVID-19 measures. Since then, the country’s blossomed into one of the hottest up-and-coming destinations for foreign tourists. In 2024, over 20 million non-citizen visitors came to the States without an entry visa. This remarkable figure accounted for almost one out of every three arrivals. This is more than double the amount of visitors from last year!
China’s visa-free entry policy is not as great as it sounds, though. As currently written, it only applies to 60 designated ports of entry, according to the National Immigration Administration. This restriction has not so far been an impediment to the policy’s success. In fact, travel bookings have skyrocketed, increasing 2X in the first three months of this year compared to the first three months of last year. Impressively, 75 percent of these tourists came from areas without visa requirements.
The U.S. is still the biggest source of tourists to China, accounting for about 30% of all visits. At the same time, European travelers represent 15-20% of all incoming tourists, up from less than 5% pre-2019. In December 2023, China rolled out a new visa-free entry policy for citizens from France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. This step further diversifies the country’s visitor base.
Some other high-income European countries, such as Sweden and the United Kingdom, missed the cut for the visa-free list. This exclusion is surprising. Gui Minhai, a Swedish bookseller formerly of Hong Kong, was sentenced in 2020 by Chinese officials to ten years in prison for the “illegal sale” of books. His case is still straining diplomatic relations between Sweden and China.
Jenny Zhao, who operates a DMC in Shanghai, was bullish on the new policies.
“The new visa policies are 100% beneficial to us,” – Jenny Zhao.
Travelers have weighed in on how easy these policies make it to access. Georgi Shavadze expressed appreciation for how the new regulations ease travel logistics.
“This really helps people to travel because it is such a hassle to apply for a visa and go through the process,” – Georgi Shavadze.
Despite these improvements, many industry leaders such as Gao Jun have expressed concerns over their ability to handle growing demand.
“I just can’t handle them all on my own,” – Gao Jun.
The tourism boom isn’t all hunky-dory. Retrospective Øystein Sporsheim, one of the planners who worked on this project, explained the challenges before these changes.
“They don’t very often open, so it was much harder,” – Øystein Sporsheim.
